The Hidden Cost of Solar Energy

Traditionally we think of electricity being generated at a large coal, nuclear, hydro or natural gas power plant and then being carried by the utility and its power lines to homes and businesses for use in the surrounding area. This model is considered “centralized generation”. Power generated at one central location and sent via transmission lines for residential or commercial use.
Any discussion of solar energy usually involves Solyndra. Solar energy is free, right? Solyndra received a $535 million federal loan guarantee, but went bankrupt only months later. It was clearly stated solar entities did not have job-growth as many companies claimed, but they existed by government intervention in the free market.
Evidently, the solar sector exists for the most part due to government subsidies, tax credits, and mandates. All this is from the NC Capitol Connection. For other states, net-metering policies – adopted in 43 states years ago – are now having a detrimental impact on groups who can’t afford solar.
This majority of energy users are faced with higher electricity bills as a result of these policies. The cost to serve net-metered customers is shifted to the non-solar customers. This cost shift is happening all around the country. One needs to have a high credit score or cash to get solar panels. Usually a solar user isn’t renting. Those who can’t get solar systems are usually living in apartments and are part of the 50 percent of families who live from paycheck to paycheck.
For any low income household, the cost for household energy can represent >37% of their income. With net-metering, the energy cost burden has dramatically increased. What happens is the cost to serve net-metered customers is shifted to the non-solar customers. The California State Public Utilities Commission estimated the cost to non-solar customers will be more than $1 billion annually by 2020 — just in California.
The current net-metering creates a financial burden for customers who can’t afford to install expensive solar panels on their homes. For those customers, the cost of electricity will get more expensive as they pay a larger share of the cost to operate and maintain the nation’s grid.
With 578,000 individual solar installations in the US today, solar accounts for only 2 percent of the nation’s total capacity. Some aspects of generating individual electricity has to be considered, and worked into one’s over-all electrical system. They include night-time, overcast days, high usage, unexpected weather events (i.e., hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc.) and general shut-downs for earthquakes and unexpected events.
It’s true net-metered customers with operating solar panels do have some advantages over normal electrical users at times. As opposed to centralized generation, “distributed generation” systems are small, on-site energy sources located at homes or businesses. Usually, this technology is rooftop solar panels. Once installed, these panels essentially convert a home or business into a small power plant generating electricity to help lower the owner’s electric bills. They ‘sell’ excess electricity back to the utility when panels generate more than is immediately needed.
This explains why some customers in California are legally required to pay a fee for electricity they don’t use. Called a “departing load charge” (DLC), it’s collected from utility customers who self-generate with anything other than solar panels. These DLC surcharges are used to pay off various debts assumed by politicians in the name of utility customers more than decade ago.
Usually, utilities would be forced to pay almost 300 percent more for electricity than it could receive from the free market. Utilities then pass these costs onto non-solar customers to maintain reliable service. This cost shift from solar users to their non-solar neighbors has driven various net-metering debates.
Adding in costs for supplementing net-metering customers, and you’ve just increased the normal energy-cost burden. Shockingly, in five years, US solar capacity has grown a huge 993 percent.
It’s clear from demand curves by 6:00 pm when “peak demand” hits, solar Photo-Voltaic, PV, provides little to no relief for the utility. The utility always has to match supply with demand.
It must be remembered solar energy is always intermittent. If it’s a stormy day, or the sun has gone down, solar panels will not work and will experience potentially dangerous power spikes. Current net metering policies tend to emphasize a solar customer’s role as an energy producer while failing to recognize its place as an energy consumer. It is important to remember if a solar panel is put on someone’s roof, their home is still reliant on the grid for power most of the day.
Where everything hits the road, the installed cost of solar panels is close to $7-$9 per watt. A 5 kW system costs $25,000-$35,000. A system generating about $75 of electricity per month would take a long time to pay for itself. Usually a system costing $18,000 has a payback period of 20 years.
Only 2 percent of the nation’s capacity is captured by PV users. Only the very rich have them, take a very long time to pay back the initial cost, and regular electricity users are eventually going to get fed up with the higher cost due to net–metered customers. Oh, how we can weave such convoluted get-rich schemes!

Comments

First, public utilities who construct solar farms and charge the cost to their customers should lose their utility licenses, because they are adding an unnecessary, much more costly component. We expect them to fight the EPA, unmask carbon capture as a scam, expose global warming as a hoax and continue to use coal, nuclear and hydro and gas if it’s the same cost as coal.

Second, farmers, hermits and others should be free to install solar and wind on their property at their cost.  All energy subsidies need to end to remove this form of trickle-up wealth redistribution. 

Third, the EPA needs to close to leave it to the states. Energy needs to give nuclear regulation back to the DOD and close. Ethanol needs to end as a government required additive to gasoline. Let energy companies pay for their own research and leave alternate energy development to the private sector or it will never happen.

Fourth, Coal and nuclear costs 2 cents/kwh to generate. Natural gas is 6 cents, Wind and solar are close to 14 cents/kwh, due to high installation and maintenance costs.

Fifth, California needs to stop gouging its taxpayers and build some water reservoirs or get HAARP to do their rain dance on California and leave the Midwest alone for a while.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader