Solar power & the grid is it cost effective? (San Diego: real estate, renters)

[Axxlrod]

My solar system was installed a few months ago. Glad I got in during Net Metering 2.0. Just got my elec "bill" today. Negative $183. Very happy.

[HuntersCrackPipe]

Installed 5 weeks ago, 12kw system $35,900 cash which included removing an old NEM 1 system to start NEM 2 for 20 years since that was required instead of just running out the remaining PTO. Model Y uses 13,000 kWh/yr, house just under 5,000. True up was $950 on the old system and gas was $600-$650/month on my Lexus. So around $8,450/yr combined, solar is $25,130 after tax credit, break even is 2.97 years in my book.

[avocadojack]

Based on your annual kWh usage of the Model Y, with the car getting 3.3 - 3.8 miles per kWh, you must be driving 42,900 - 49,400 miles per year. IS that correct?

[NORTY FLATZ]

A T-car, requires about 6 panels to support a typical commute. Driving 500 miles in an hour and a half, will require significantly MORE than 6 panels....

[evening sun]

we decided against it, we could only get enough panels to cover about 80% of our usage, & as we are both seniors felt the cost to install was not worth it. Even 5 years ago it might had made economic sense, but not at the sunset of our lives.

[CA4Now]

Thursday’s (11/16/23) 5-0 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission will make solar panels less economically enticing for apartment dwellers, farmers, schools and strip malls, solar companies say. The commission approved similarly dramatic solar incentive cuts for single-family homes in December — a decision the industry says has prompted a steep drop-off in sales.

It’s a disappointing turn of events, especially considering how much value we’ve gotten from rooftop solar so far.

California has more than 1.8 million solar systems at homes and businesses. They generate about 11% of the state’s electricity, helping limit our combustion of the fossil fuels destabilizing Earth’s climate and filling the air with deadly chemicals.

But critics insist the costs of those solar panels are beginning to outweigh the benefits.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/...-boiling-point

https://calmatters.org/environment/2...solar-payment/

[AnythingOutdoors]

Net Metering 1.0 and 2.0 were fine when there were relatively few residential solar installations, but it was never going to scale. Paying retail rates for electrons pushed to the grid w/o coordination does not scale. The EIA has an good write up on the so-called duck curve problem this creates, with over-generation during peak solar hours and stress this puts on the grid. Changes to NM are intended to make it more attractive to install batteries alongside solar, which is what the grid needs. Batteries can shift generation to the evenings when people get home and charge their EVs, run the dishwasher, etc.

[Thekdog]

It was only making so much money because people without solar panels were subsidizing it

[stablegenius]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Thursday’s (11/16/23) [i]5-0 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission will make solar panels less economically enticing for apartment dwellers, farmers, schools and strip malls, solar companies say. The commission approved similarly dramatic solar incentive cuts for single-family homes in December — a decision the industry says has prompted a steep drop-off in sales.

Yet the solar people keep knocking on my door...

[CA4Now]

To the editor: In 2011, my wife and I put 33 panels on our roof in order to produce sufficient energy for ourselves and our community.

Since we bought the system, we’ve contributed to a power grid that was on the verge of browning out (especially after the San Onofre nuclear power plant petered out) in periods of maximum demand. The system on our home has now paid for itself and continues to generate more than we need.

Yet publicly held utilities want me and others who are doing something about needed power generation to pay more in fees because they can’t pay their shareholders in a manner to which they’ve become accustomed?

The utilities push the silly idea that my wife and I are somehow robber barons for having panels on our roof: “Oh, look at that couple in Escondido who installed solar so they could afford to retire!” Get real.

-Steve Thorne, Escondido

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/lett...makes-no-sense