XPost: alt.california, talk.environment   
   From: dragon40@removeunseen.is   
      
   A modest proposal:   
      
   We've all heard about "shop local" and "get your food from local farmers,   
   not distant corporate farms."  Lots of people have apple trees in their   
   backyards.  Often they can't begin to eat or give away all the apples.   
   In the meantime, big supermarkets sell corporate apples for one dollar a   
   pound and up.  I propose that people with backyard apples be able to take   
   them to the supermarket and sell them to the supermarket for the same   
   price at which the supermarket is selling apples.  Furthermore, they   
   should be able to take them at any time and receive payment.  If the   
   store gets too many local apples, it can reduce its purchase of corporate   
   apples.   
      
   My apple proposal may seem ill advised, but that is exactly how rooftop   
   solar power works.  The homeowner gets to displace power from the power   
   company, and if the homeowner has more power than he needs, the power   
   company is obligated to purchase it, often for the same retail price at   
   which it sells electricity.  That policy is called net metering.  In   
   order to accommodate the homeowner's electric power, the utility has to   
   throttle down some other power plant that produces power at a lower   
   wholesale price.   
      
   The exact arrangements for accepting rooftop solar vary by jurisdiction.   
   In some places, net metering is restricted in one way or another.   
      
      
   Photo credit: publicdomainpictures.net.   
      
   A large-scale natural gas-generating plant can supply electricity for   
   around 6 cents per kilowatt-hour.  Rooftop solar electricity costs,   
   without subsidies, around 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, or five times as   
   much.  Average retail rates for electricity in most places are between 8   
   cents and 16 cents per kilowatt-hour.  Yet, paradoxically, the homeowner   
   can often reduce this electric bill by installing rooftop solar.   
      
   It is actually worse than forcing the power company to take 30-cent   
   electricity that it could get from a natural gas plant for 6 cents.  When   
   the company throttles down a natural gas plant to make room for rooftop   
   electricity, it is not saving six cents, because it already has paid for   
   the gas plant.  All it saves is the marginal fuel that is saved when the   
   plant is throttled down to make room for the rooftop electricity.  The   
   saving in fuel is about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour.  So 30-cent   
   electricity displaces grid electricity and saves two cents.   
      
   But where does the other 28 cents come from?  Who pays for that?  Part is   
   paid for by the federal 30% subsidy for solar energy construction cost.   
   That takes care of about nine cents per kilowatt-hour.  That leaves the   
   homeowner with electricity costing him 21 cents per kilowatt-hour.  The   
   cost comes from his monthly payments on the loan to build the solar   
   system divided by the number of kilowatt-hours generated that month.  If   
   he pays cash for the solar system, then the monthly cost is his lost   
   investment return on the cash he paid.  If he lives in a jurisdiction   
   where electricity costs 11 cents, then he is losing 10 cents for each   
   kilowatt-hour generated (21 cents minus 11 cents).  But if he lives in   
   California, where larger home users of electricity pay 53 cents per   
   kilowatt-hour if they consume beyond a baseline limit, he saves 32 cents   
   for each kilowatt-hour of solar electricity generated.  In that case, the   
   power company is losing kilowatt-hours it could have sold for 53 cents.   
   Other customers have to pay more to make up the lost revenue.   
      
   From the standpoint of society, rooftop solar substitutes 30-cent   
   electricity in order to save two cents.  If the homeowner is at least   
   breaking even, as he usually is, he hasn't lost anything due to the   
   substitution.  The money to pay for the 30-cent electricity comes from   
   the taxpayer-provided subsidy and revenue that is no longer paid to the   
   power company.  The taxpayers and power company pay for 30-cent   
   electricity that could have been obtained for two cents by burning a   
   little more natural gas.  If the homeowner makes a profit on the solar   
   power, then the burden on everyone else is even greater.  Since the power   
   company is guaranteed a rate of return, or at least has to break even,   
   rates have to be raised enough to pay for the overpriced rooftop   
   electricity.  The burden falls on society to pay for the scheme.  The   
   purveyors of rooftop solar, crackpot environmentalists and rooftop solar-   
   owners, are happy.  Everyone else is screwed.   
      
   Here is an example of rooftop solar that costs 30 cents a kilowatt-hour.   
   A 5-kilowatt rooftop system costs about $21,000 installed.  It will   
   generate 7,000 kilowatt-hours per year.  If it is financed over 20 years   
   at 8% interest, the annual payment will be $2,139.  The cost per   
   kilowatt-hour is $2,139/7,000 = $0.306, or 30.6 cents per kilowatt-hour.   
   Of course, costs and interest rates vary, as does sunshine.  If you think   
   8% is too high for the interest rate, ask yourself if you would loan your   
   neighbor $21,000 for 20 years for less.  Rooftop solar is expensive   
   compared to utility-scale solar, because it is a small custom   
   installation.  The orientation and slope of the house roof may be less   
   than ideal.  Large-scale utility solar, in contrast, can be as cheap as   
   seven cents per kilowatt-hour.   
      
   An increasing problem, already present in California, is too much solar.   
   The electric grid has a combination of base load power and additional   
   peaking loads.  The base load runs 24 hours a day and is not easy to   
   throttle down.  Solar power peaks around midday.  If there is so much   
   solar as to threaten the base generation, solar has to be curtailed.  In   
   California, this happens in the spring, when sunshine is plentiful but   
   the air-conditioning load is not yet large.  When solar dies, in the hour   
   before sunset, peak power consumption is often being reached.  In that   
   case, solar aggravates the rate at which the rest of the grid has to   
   increase power output to handle the early evening peak.  If the homeowner   
   is at least breaking even, he is probably generating surplus electricity   
   during the middle of the day, adding more solar during the critical   
   midday period and increasing the size of the sudden surge in power demand   
   when the sun fades.   
      
   Utility-scale solar costing seven cents is a big waste of money.  Rooftop   
   solar costing 30 cents is insane.  Special interests  – the solar   
   industry and environmentalist crackpots – have convinced legislatures and   
   public utility commissions to stack the deck with net metering and   
   absurdly high tiered electric rates.  The result is to make it profitable   
   for homeowners to invest in what otherwise would be very expensive   
   electricity.  Society as a whole pays for the economic waste, amounting   
   typically to 28 cents per kilowatt-hour of rooftop electricity.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)