Garlan Garner
Banned
If that's the case...I don't understand how Solar City is a tremendous benefit. If the rate that you are paying to Solar City is close to what you are paying your local provider.
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JeffK
Well-Known Member
You mean besides the entire power storage benefit which may become half of Tesla's future revenue?
Here in NorCal PG&E land, I pay $0.396/kWh during peak (2pm-9pm) with my rate plan. Of course, I'm rarely consuming at the time and usually feeding the grid. But that's the reality of the rate structure.
Offtopic, maybe this should be split into separate thread? But how much do you get from feeding the grid? The little (and I mean *little*) investigation I've done here isn't too promising.
perhaps, but that has almost nothing to do with cars on the road. The transport machines (aka cars) do not have solar roofs, do not have any solar panels contained in them. And while power storage may grow to half of the company's revenue, that doesn't do much for the cars themselves. The electrons are fungible. One can charge a car and use the battery, or a run a toaster.
Now, if Elon wants to put solar panels on his SuperCharging stations, all he had to do was put out a bid to Solar City and the others in that space for best of breed and price. Owning SolarCity gives him little advantage on price, and technology.
That is why most investors are not clamoring for the deal.
Warren Buffett has done extremely well putting companies under one umbrella, but that does not make them integrated.
But sorry, really off the point of this thread.
Now, if Elon wants to put solar panels on his SuperCharging stations, all he had to do was put out a bid to Solar City and the others in that space for best of breed and price. Owning SolarCity gives him little advantage on price, and technology.
That is why most investors are not clamoring for the deal.
Warren Buffett has done extremely well putting companies under one umbrella, but that does not make them integrated.
But sorry, really off the point of this thread.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
I think what Elon was pitching was selling everything as a package. Basically you get a Tesla car, battery pack, and solar panel in an entire package. I agree that the market was not enthusiastic about it and the advantage doesn't seem like much (esp. considering the risks) vs. keeping them as independent companies.
cpa
Active Member
Ohmman, you stinker! Just gotta rub it in that your hideaway in the North Bay region does not get so unbearably hot that you can laugh at all us fools who live in the hot interior valleys of California who suffer during the summer like the gallery in "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "Inherit the Wind."
I figured out that the old-fashioned tiered rates for us made the most sense. Our PV system is 4,400 watts, which is more than enough to generate a surplus from late February-late June and again from now until early November. We even had a $2.50 credit at our most recent true up, but in past years has averaged about $150 per year.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
Around here it usually depends on the utility that serves one's house, or on state laws.
I am served by a power cooperative, as opposed to a corporate utility, and it is very responsive to its member-customers. We solar net metering customers complained about settling excess solar generation each year in June at the wholesale rate of 3¢/kWh and they changed it to March, and later got rid of settlement entirely. Now we can just carry over excess kWh generated as long as we want, so long as we don't exceed 10,000 kWh credit. My typical pattern is that I generate more energy in the spring and summer than I use and draw on that credit in the fall and winter when my electricity use increases and solar generation decreases. Thanks to my 2170 watt solar array I haven't paid for electricity, beyond a $16 monthly service charge, in more than three years.
Other utilities are considerably less friendly to solar net metering customers than my member-owned coop.
Yeah I get where SolarCity and the battery pack could be a good package, and perhaps one could call them "integrated". But if Elon expects to that a bunch of car buyers will be interested in solar roofs+batteries, he is sorely mistaken.
Garlan Garner
Banned
I get the same they'd charge. So I sell it at $0.396/kWh, and I consume at night at $0.10/kWh. It's honestly more complicated than that, since there are shoulder rates and I lose sunlight anywhere from 5-7pm during peak season, at which point I become a consumer.
Regardless, at my yearly true-up, I usually am running about a $1000 credit, despite using around 1MWh for the year.
And @cpa, yes - because of you Central Valley folks, we have the rate tiers that we do. For those of us that rarely need to run AC, it's pure luck and nothing else. The good news is that the next time you're in town, you can reach out and I'll buy you a cold beer to make up for it. We can even sit outside to drink it.
Red Sage
The Cybernetic Samurai
But in each place it is a lot easier to spend that much on gasoline for an AUDI A4, BMW 3-Series, Cadillac ATS, or Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Yeah. Even driving back and forth on King Kamehameha Highway.
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