CA Solar Tax ??? [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

As an electric vehicle consultant to utility companies, I have been telling
utility managers for years that despite the zero pollution mandate in
California, Massachusetts and a few other places, the petroleum and
automobile industries will not give up the transportation market sector to
electric utilities. Now I am telling PV companies that despite net metering
and a strong popular mandate for solar, the fossil fuel and electric utility
industries will not allow widespread net metered renewable energy
distributed distribution. Don't kid yourself. This is a real battle for
survival for both sides.

Graham Owen wrote:

> Frank wrote:
>
> The whole "exit fee" thing is the biggest bunch of "BULL" I have ever
> heard of, but what really burns my ass is the comment below from the
> article.
>
> "That's why state regulators are looking at imposing between 2 cents and
> 5 cents per kilowatt hour in fees for anyone with an off-grid system,
> which makes sense for big, industrial diesel setups but would cast a
> dark cloud over solar".
>
> SUNcerely,
> Frank Fowler
>
> Hi Frank,
>
> It seems the reporter did not fully understand the issues and the
> difference between on-grid and off-grid PV.  I believe this exit-fee BS
> has the potential to only tax on-grid PV.  The utilities like to think
> of these fees as "departing load" fees, and would apply them to
> properties which generate their own power, while remaining connected to
> the grid.  Perhaps the utilities envision a growing technology  whose
> owners generate power when the sun shines, run the meter backwards all
> day, while utilizing a power grid as a big free battery that never needs
> replacement, allowing power to be extracted at night, resulting in a
> utility bill so insignificant that these property owners are not paying
> their fair share toward the maintenance, service and upkeep of the grid.
> That is the only argument that I can think of on their behalf.  When in
> reality, PV complements the grid by peaking it's output at the same time
> as grid demand peaks.  PV Places power into the grid when electricity is
> most expensive, which gets sold to the next door neighbor, and is taken
> back when costs are lowest, at night.  To me this seems like a financial
> benefit to the utility. I think one could argue that the utilities
> should pay extra for this clean alternative power supplement into their
> grid. Nevertheless grid connected PV property owners do pay a monthly
> connection fee which is supposed to cover service charges, regardless of
> the units of power consumed. What makes this exit-fee solar tax even
> more ridiculous is that: the number of grid connected PV systems in CA
> is so insignificant that the money collected would not be enough to
> adequately fund the new bureaucracy necessary to administer this new PV
> taxation scheme. Talk about waste of money, and perhaps even our own
> industry and its environmental benefits for everyone. If we are truly
> seeking to reduce our dependence on carbon-based fuels, it's obvious how
> advantageous PV is to the citizens of California, not to mention all the
> new jobs created and manufacturing exportation potential.  I just cannot
> imagine reasonable rational minds allowing the utilities to get away
> with this BS.  The CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) was
> instituted to protect the public and I believe they wont allow this to
> pass.  But we do have to keep up the fight and letter writing just to
> help make sure.
>
> Graham
>
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