{"id":7281,"date":"2013-12-31T14:27:06","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T19:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=7281"},"modified":"2013-12-31T14:31:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T19:31:53","slug":"utilities-cant-take-the-solar-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/utilities-cant-take-the-solar-heat.html","title":{"rendered":"Utilities can’t take the solar heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nUtilities are trying increasingly desperate tactics in their\r\nlosing battle against distributed rooftop solar power.\r\nIt’s time for them to get out in front and lead instead.\r\n

\r\nClare Foran wrote for NationalJournal\r\n\r\nAre Utilities Wilting From Heat of Solar Competition?<\/a>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nRegulatory battles over solar power payment models played out in\r\nseveral states this year. And as the dust settles, solar providers\r\nare claiming victory. Utilities, on the other hand, are trying to\r\nreframe the conversation entirely by insisting they aren’t an enemy\r\nof solar.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAfter discussing utlities’ attempts to bash net metering, she notes\r\nthe\r\n\r\nSierra Club<\/a>\r\n\r\nhard-won<\/a>\r\nvictory over the\r\n\r\nALEC solar tax<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nIn November, Georgia Power\r\n\r\nbacked down<\/a> from a proposal to tack on\r\nfees for rooftop solar customers amid pressure from consumer\r\nadvocates and solar boosters. And in Idaho, the state public\r\nutilities commission \r\nrejected<\/a> a similar proposal.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nCut to the chase:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nWhat is clear is that heading into next year the question of solar\r\npower payment has not yet been resolved. State-level decisions\r\nimpacting net-metering and fees for solar customers are begining to\r\nlook like just the start of a much larger debate around reworking\r\nutility payment structures in the age of distributed generation.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nBoth sides know this conversation is coming, if it hasn’t already arrived.<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe conversation was already well under way back in May\r\n\r\nat the Southern Company stockholder meeting<\/a>\r\nwhen SO CEO Tom Fanning announced\r\na tiger team to get on top of distributed solar and wind through a smart grid\r\nand even proposed:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nthe idea to think about a rooftop not as a customer-owned or\r\n“we own” kind of resource, but as a potential site. And\r\nwhat we’ll pay the home is a site lease. Isn’t that interesting?\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWhy yes, that is interesting!\r\nStill looking forward to the report from that tiger team that Fanning\r\nsaid was due “sometime later this summer”.\r\n

\r\nUtilities can only put off the switch to solar for a little while.\r\nDitto methane pipeline companies:\r\n\r\nthey can try to gash ditches through our lands to get to the sea to export<\/a>\r\nbut solar is still going to eat their lunch in the end.\r\nSo let’s stop them now.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nNo\r\n\r\ncorporate-boondoggle Trans-Pacific Partnership<\/a>!\r\n\r\nNo gas pipe<\/a>!\r\n\r\nNo new nukes<\/a>!\r\n

\r\nSolar power now.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Utilities are trying increasingly desperate tactics in their losing battle against distributed rooftop solar power. It’s time for them to get out in front and lead instead. Clare Foran wrote for NationalJournal Are Utilities Wilting From Heat of Solar Competition? Regulatory battles over solar power payment models played out in several states this year. And […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[140,14,18,2,20,6124,104,6687,23,24],"tags":[2861,8744,8704,8701,8708,8699,8702,8710,12,7,562,8737,6076,8713,1605,8714,7180,108,7362,6339,7354,7355,62,6],"class_list":["post-7281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alec","category-economy","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-law","category-natural-gas-2","category-nuclear","category-pipeline-2","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-net-metering","tag-alec","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-nuclear","tag-pipeline","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rooftop-solar","tag-solar","tag-solar-tax","tag-southern-company","tag-tiger-team","tag-tom-fanning","tag-tpp","tag-trans-pacific-partnership","tag-utilities","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1Tr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7281"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7286,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7281\/revisions\/7286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}