\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\nBut some experts say the mere fact that utilities—\r\n\r\nwhich generate $360 billion a year in energy sales<\/a>—are battling with\r\nsolar indicates the threat it now poses to them.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n“The success of solar power is forcing utilities to rethink their\r\nbusiness model and push for the changes,” said Franc Del Fosse, an\r\nenergy industry lawyer and partner at Snell & Wilmer. “If you have\r\nan individual putting solar panels on the roof, it’s easy to suggest\r\nthat a utility is making less money.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe effort for higher fees on solar panel users could backfire, said\r\nAlan Beale, general manager of SolarMax.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nIf the fees are too high, he said, “it will just delay … the\r\ninevitable, and more companies and individuals will go to the\r\nindependent energy producers.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nSure, even before\r\n\r\nEdison Electric Institute codified that net metering talking point in September 2013<\/a>,\r\nTom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company,\r\nwas on that same talking point\r\nback in May 2013 at the SO stockholder meeting<\/a>\r\nand I’ve head Paul Bowers, CEO of Georgia Power, on the same talking point.\r\nThey always seem to forget to mention what \r\nAustinEnergy discovered<\/a>:\r\nin reduced wear on their lines and deferred need to produce more power,\r\namong other benefits, rooftop solar actually is worth more<\/em>\r\nto utilities than the power the utilities generate.\r\nI’ll say again what I’ve said to Bowers and Fanning\r\nand published in the newspaper:\r\nlet rooftop solar generators and solar farms sell through your grid\r\nand take a percentage, and then everybody will win.\r\n
\r\nBack to the article:\r\n
\r\n\r\nEven as they push for net metering changes, utilities are jumping on\r\nthe solar bandwagon.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n“We’ve invested in a solar distribution firm ourselves,” said\r\nCarver.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nIt’s solar time, Georgia Power and Southern Company!\r\nJump on the bandwagon or get left behind.\r\n
\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","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 […]","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":[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"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1UH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_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}]}}