\nMark Koba wrote for CNBC yesterday,
\n
\nPower play: Utilities want solar users to pay up<\/a>,<\/p>\n
\n\n
\n<\/a>
\nBut some experts say the mere fact that utilities—
\n
\nwhich generate $360 billion a year in energy sales<\/a>—are battling with
\nsolar indicates the threat it now poses to them.\n<\/p>\n\n“The success of solar power is forcing utilities to rethink their
\nbusiness model and push for the changes,” said Franc Del Fosse, an
\nenergy industry lawyer and partner at Snell & Wilmer. “If you have
\nan individual putting solar panels on the roof, it’s easy to suggest
\nthat a utility is making less money.”\n<\/p>\n\nThe effort for higher fees on solar panel users could backfire, said
\nAlan Beale, general manager of SolarMax.\n<\/p>\n\nIf the fees are too high, he said, “it will just delay … the
\ninevitable, and more companies and individuals will go to the
\nindependent energy producers.”\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nSure, even before
\n
\nEdison Electric Institute codified that net metering talking point in September 2013<\/a>,
\nTom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company,
\nwas on that same talking point
\nback in May 2013 at the SO stockholder meeting<\/a>
\nand I’ve head Paul Bowers, CEO of Georgia Power, on the same talking point.
\nThey always seem to forget to mention what
\nAustinEnergy discovered<\/a>:
\nin reduced wear on their lines and deferred need to produce more power,
\namong other benefits, rooftop solar actually is worth more<\/em>
\nto utilities than the power the utilities generate.
\nI’ll say again what I’ve said to Bowers and Fanning
\nand published in the newspaper:
\nlet rooftop solar generators and solar farms sell through your grid
\nand take a percentage, and then everybody will win.<\/p>\n\nBack to the article:<\/p>\n
\n\nEven as they push for net metering changes, utilities are jumping on
\nthe solar bandwagon.\n<\/p>\n\n“We’ve invested in a solar distribution firm ourselves,” said
\nCarver.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nIt’s solar time, Georgia Power and Southern Company!
\nJump on the bandwagon or get left behind.<\/p>\n\n -jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The same Edison Electric Institute that warned electric utilities that distributed solar is already eating their lunch has codified a net metering talking point that utilities are pushing to try to shade solar power. It’s not working. Power play: Utilities want solar users to pay up Mark Koba wrote for CNBC yesterday, Power play: Utilities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,18,23,24,3],"tags":[2861,8704,6140,8701,8708,8702,12,7,8713,8714,108,8700,6],"class_list":["post-7359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-georgia-power","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","category-transparency","tag-net-metering","tag-economy","tag-edison-electric-institute","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7359","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=7359"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7361,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7359\/revisions\/7361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}