How to equitably fund the utility grid...

[TheTalkingMule]

Once we get prices right, then what I'd advocate is for states, either directly or through PUC-approved utility programs, to make low-interest loans available to enable people to install distributed resources and energy efficiency measures without capital availability being the constraint. If done through the utility, the loan repayment could be done on the utility bill--and if the investments were actually cost-effective, then the bill+repayment will be lower than the pre-install level. Yes, this would challenge the PV lease model of SolarCity and others, but the lease option isn't always the best; I suspect a significant number of people choose lease because they don't have the capital to pay up front. Businesses have enjoyed these low-cost energy efficiency loans for decades; it's time to to bring the same benefits to residential customers.

Admittedly I know next to nothing about utilities, but it seems unlikely to me that we'll see distributed electricity hardware financed through the very utilities which will be eventually destroyed by distributed electricity. Low cost efficiency loans and rebates up until now did not have the end of the entire industry in their cross-hairs. I can't imagine US utilities looking at the changes in Germany and letting themselves become obsolete(unprofitable) in a matter of a few years.

The largest utility in Germany recently spun off all it's production, it will no longer produce non-renewable electricity. US utility interests are not gonna let that happen, right? Again I pretty much have no clue on the topic, but I see them putting up a much bigger fight here.

Excellent thread. Now that hardware costs have tanked to nothing and install costs will shortly tank, distribution and grid concerns will be topic #1 for quite some time.

 

[Robert.Boston]

A very good piece on NPR this morning entitled "Utilities Fight For Revenue Lost To Solar Power".

As more and more U.S. households make their own electricity with solar panels, they're paying less to electric utilities, and that's making the utilities a little nervous. In some states, those companies are fighting back.