$... it always come down to money. If you're getting power from the sun, then you're not paying someone else for it. The article also stated they would add $100 fee for the ability to sell extra power you have BACK to the power company. Effectively stopping people from selling power back to the power company. Or just making money of the process.
Gotta pay the VIG bro...
Which is total BS because that is power they take and deliver to your neighbors at full rates. Power they didn't have to burn coal or whatever they use to make. Also it saves their transformers, generators and substations that don't have to run as hard in the heat of day when loads are high due to air cons on full blast because all that free sun power is spreading electrons across the grid.
Thats how these work, we size each system to take 5-6 sun hours of PV to cover a homes 24 hour usage, it creates a negative charge on the meter which is then used up by the evening and night time loads. Thats why its called net metering, it takes your day negative and your night positive and the net usage is what you are charged for or in some lucky places the utility pays you for any excess.
Some places have what is called Feed-in Tariffs where the utility will pay a rate, usually less than what they charge customers, for all excess energy you pump into the grid. It's a sweet deal if you have the money to invest and roof space for more solar modules than what your home or business uses per day.
Thats ok if the utilities want to play games. Batteries are becoming cheaper, better and the inverters to convert DC batt are becoming smarter. Right now a person who is told "No Net Meter for you," by their utility can set up a Mini-Grid in their home where the inverter will use PV/Wind/Hydro power and battery storage to run its loads and will not use utility power until the battery and/or alternative power decreases below what the loads need. No self made power is exported to the grid and you can program the inverter to only recharge the batteries from the grid at certain times like off-peak if your utility has different rates at times of day. With LNG becoming cheaper I have thought about doing a Mini-Grid and getting a LNG or Bio-diesel generator to charge my batteries and never use the utility except for desperate times. Our rates are around .36 cents per kWh though so it pencils out very well.
Solar Water Heating though was the best investment I ever made for my home, that alone cut my bill in half. Lookup SunEarth Solar Collectors and companies who install them in your area. You'll be glad you did. It uses the suns heat to make your hot water and store it overnight in a 80 - 120 gallon tank and will only use the utility to heat it in very cloudy or extra cold winter days.
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