Paying for Sunlight

Every hour, the sun beams onto Earth more than enough energy to satisfy global energy needs for an entire year. Sunlight is already free, but power companies want you to pay if you are using it to make electricity. Utilities say that solar-friendly rate plans are too generous, allowing solar customers to avoid paying for the grid even though they use it. It is becoming more difficult for the utility industry to hold onto customers since U.S. homes and businesses are becoming more efficient and are generating their own electricity. With some of the new fees or rate changes being pushed by utilities, rooftop solar systems would not be economical.

Solar energy is the technology used to harness the sun's energy and make it usable. Today, the technology produces less than one tenth of one percent of global energy demand. Rooftop solar has become a mainstream way to save money on power bills, and utilities are now afraid they will lose so many customers that they won't be able to afford to build and maintain the grid. Solar energy use has surged at about twenty percent a year over the past fifteen years, thanks to rapidly falling prices and gains in efficiency. Solar systems have dropped in price rapidly and grown to be more popular during a time when U.S. electricity use is flat or even declining. More customers are buying drastically less power when they generate their own with solar panels, fuel cells or other distributed generation technologies. This reduces the need to build big power plants and transmission lines, which is how utilities expand their businesses, make a profit for shareholders and keep their borrowing costs low. Regulators allow utilities to make higher profit when they build large projects.

Some power companies are putting forward the idea of an extra fee for solar customers. Utilities have proposed charging special fees or rolling back power-swapping rate plans in Georgia, Arizona, California and Idaho. In California, legislators voted to allow the state's solar rate plan to continue, but it would change the way the state's structures rates in a way that may address utilities' concerns. Arizona Public Service Co. officials propose either charging new solar users a rate that reclaims more of the utility's costs or reducing the benefit of the energy-swapping program.

"If I turn off my lights, the power company shouldn't send me a bill," suggests James Marlow, CEO of Radiance Solar in Atlanta. Power companies have said that Marlow should at least pay for the option of turning the lights back on when the sun is not shining. Now, the question is how much.

Source: "Clouds appear for solar users as utilities seek to recoup grid costs" by The Associated Press, from Dallas Morning News. 10/6/13