Solar emPowered

A friend of mine is getting quite proud. After inheriting a house and settling in he is going solar.

First he is getting rid of his “oil roof” - that's what he calls the shingles (mostly tar covered) on the roof of the house. Face it: they are made of refined petroleum. And the roofing tar that has been used to patch the leaks is nothing more than … you guessed it: refined petroleum.

So his oil roof is going to become a metal roof. An off white/gray color to help keep the house cool in this era of global warming.

Once that is done: solar panels will be installed and he will be able to (mostly) cut the cord to National Grid(lock) and become more energy independent. He's looking forward to the day when Elon Musk's Tesla Corporation (or whatever he calls it, or some other company) produces storage batteries for home based solar and wind generators. Then he can pretty much go off the grid entirely.

For now he will be selling excess electricity back to National Grid(lock). Thing is, they don't want to buy it. At least at the prices that they are required to right now. For now, National Grid(lock) and other electric distributors have to buy the electricity back at retail prices. This means that what they sell it for, they have to buy it from him at. And they don't like that because it cuts into their profits.

So the electric producers and distributors can make a profit but the solar panel owning home owner can't? That's not very capitalistic.

They want to buy it at wholesale prices – what the electricity producers sell it at before the distributors apply their (excessive) mark up. Seriously. His last bill was just over $48. The delivery charges were $32. If you dig into that “delivery charge,” $17 is the basic service and then $13 is the actual delivery charge. He only used $16 worth of electricity for the entire month. (Wait until he gets married. And then add the kids.)

The power delivery companies claim that it is unfair to them to have to pay retail prices for the solar electricity because the people on solar are not using the transmission lines and are passing the costs onto other users. (Wait until the other users go solar.)

The fact is that they (the delivery companies) are a monopoly and the electric producers are also a monopoly. And they are part of the fight because anything that cuts into their monopoly status is a direct threat to their profits (and the overpaid CEO salary, benefits, and retirement packages.) Solar and wind are decentralized and, in some cases, allow people to go off the grid entirely, (You need a balance of solar and wind to do this. My friend could do this. It's windy out where he lives.) When people aren't buying their electricity, they lose money big time and there is no way for them to monopolize the sun or wind. (House based systems caught on too fast and the only thing they can do is pass legislation that prohibits housetop systems. Those laws are going to fall as natural gas prices jump and the prices of solar panels and wind turbines drop.)

There's also the claim of an unfair government subsidy. There are tax breaks and credits for home owners that go to wind and solar based projects. The monopolists should be OK with this though. Look at all the subsidies that nuclear energy has received over the years. If it weren't for us, the taxpayers, underwriting nuclear, it wouldn't exist. And for what it is worth, Once you figure in all the tax dollars that we have put into nuclear energy, it actually costs $16 or so a kilowatt hour. I don't think those figures include the costs of storing all that nuclear waste. And remember – nuclear plants are always (way) over budget and behind schedule. Both FAIR.org and Project Censored have covered this in great detail.

So, here he is proudly doing what capitalists say he should want to do, except they don't want him to do it because it hurts their profits.

I don't understand capitalists.

I want to be there when he throws the switch for the panels to start producing solar energy.

He'll be going green and the energy producing and transmitting companies will be going green as well. Green with envy.