YOU PAY! NO YOU PAY! NO YOU!
- dianahird
- Jun 11, 2017
- 1 min read
If solar panels are cheap, and installing them is cheap, and rays of sun are free, why does solar energy provide such a small percentage of our power?
The short answer is that the wires that make up our electric grid (and all the technological and operational systems that go with it) are antiquated. The solution seems obvious: Update it!
We can all agree on that. What we don’t agree on, is who should pay for the updates.
Let’s take one very simple example: hooking up a solar array to a utility’s distribution line. In many cases, the hook-up requires changes to the infrastructure (like the transformer). The utility doesn’t want to pay for that fix and the solar developer doesn’t want to pay for that fix.
A related problem, in order for a solar developer to start a project, they need financing. In order to get financing, they need to show their business plan for that project. But they can’t predict what the hook-up is going to cost ($5,000? $50,000?). And if you can’t project your costs, nobody’s going to invest in your project.
And those are some reasons why solar power hasn’t yet played a bigger role in our energy production. It is all solvable with investment in the infrastructure. Which takes us back to square one: You pay for it! No you pay for it! No you!
Related Resources:
Trabish, Herman K., "How New York Is Incentivizing Utilities To Interconnect DERS under REVs", www.utilitydive.com, April 6, 2017.
Osborne, James, "Tech Out To Disrupt Power Industry", Houston Chronicle, June 11, 2017
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