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Originally Posted by Mobile Master Tech
One thing to remember about any form of grid-tie: your system has to conform to their specs and inspected to make sure it does, plus it may not save you anything depending on your utility's policy.
I have Jackson EMC. They charge an extra $10/mo for net metering, but only pay you "avoided energy cost" for what you generate, which is basically the cost of the fuel burned to produce it plus transmission losses. In the summer afternoons on a time of use rate, I would pay 35c/kwh to use electricity from them, but they would pay me only 3 or 4 cents per kwh to buy electricity from me. Unless I sell them more than 250kwh or so, it doesn't even offset the metering charge.
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I have a rural coop for my grid. Very good people. I just went to a meeting last week because they have to raise their rates.
Here's what's happening. Because of low solar rates lots of people are now considering PV. (OK oil prices are falling but that won't last forever and when they go up again Alternates will crush them.) What I call single point energy corporations don't want to let go of the strangle hold on energy, PV is a big threat to them because it's harder to monopolize. It is however good for everyone else and the planet. (The Koch brothers aren't concerned about the planet, by the way...) Any how, these corporations are sitting in their board rooms trying to figure how to keep monopolizing energy so they are coming up with all these schemes and deterrents to stop us from going solar. Around here they are now trying to lease land for PV arrays, their telling the poor people here that they are going to get $1k a month per acre. Problem is when you read the small print you get what the people who lease their land for fracking got - next to zip!
So to keep people from installing PV they're doing everything they can. I've said this before, the thing that always wins out is technology and it won't be any different here. Once you can go into your box store store and buy a system for peanuts it will be like a gold rush. In the not to distant future there won't be a grid, PV will have a wider light spectrum and houses will be generators from roofs to walls.
The other thing is that more and more efficient appliances and heating systems will reduce our basic energy needs.
Rob