Rooftop solar limitations
I understand that the electric utilities in California compromised with environmentalists regarding rooftop solar installations. Everyone I know who has installed rooftop solar was told to install only enough for their own use. Why is this so? Given that there are plenty of rooftops with no solar equipment, those who do install it should be free to install enough to power their own homes—and their neighbors’.
I also read that a couple of years ago, SCE Corp had so much solar energy being developed that they had an excess, and had to pay neighboring states to take it off their hands. I am not an expert on the electrical grid, but considering that we were just informed by SCE that our electrical rate between 1 and 3 p.m. will be triple the lowest rate, it sounds like SCE no longer has that problem. Moreover, when they did have that problem, why didn’t they offer lower rates on those days and at those times that they anticipated extra supply from solar installations? People could have chosen that time, for example, to plug in their cars or turn on their air conditioners....
Personally, I would much prefer to see more rooftop solar collectors than massive solar farms out in the desert. It is expensive and wasteful to transport electricity, so why not make it as close as possible to where it will be used?
So I am suggesting that the Sierra Club work together with other environmental organizations to try to get California (and other states) to change the law regarding rooftop solar installations. Let us all be free to generate as much solar as we can, and sell it back to SCE to resell to someone who can’t or won’t install rooftop solar.
Bill Niemand (not verified)
June 8, 2020 - 6:17pm
Permalink