Turn Your Utility toward the Sun
February 20, 2009In the June 2008 issue of Solar Citizen we reported on a new study that shows that solar power could provide 10% of US electricity needs by 2025 with the active participation of electric utilities. It also makes the point that without utility involvement, solar will never grow to become a significant contributor to our energy future.
Many solar citizens consider the involvement of utilities in solar generation tantamount to a hijacking by Big Business of the yeoman-generator model of energy self-sufficiency. Given how, in any recent age, BB has repeatedly subsumed everyday commerce into its ambit by means fair or foul, this is not an unreasonable fear. And if Big Utilities use their clout to siphon off funds, taxes or credits intended for citizen-level initiatives, the fear will have been realized. But the recently-passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka Stimulus Package) has provided considerable support for clean energy at all levels, including residential rooftop solar, and absent BB end-runs that somehow evade the attention of advocacy watchdog groups, we feel that both ends of the spectrum will be served.
At the distributed end of that spectrum, where reside customer-owned residential and commercial systems, what is most crucial to success is the attitude of your electric utility to net metering and interconnection; more of that below. But whatever your utility’s attitude, it will need to plan now for integration of solar into its fuel source mix, as we prepare for the probability of a national renewable electricity standard and as coal, oil and gas become progressively less acceptable and more expensive. (more…)
