Wasteful Solar Costing You Money!

This isn’t a post about how horrid solar power is mainly because it isn’t horrible or bad.  It’s interesting, but still VERY expensive and worth noting how badly public policy misses that point.

America spent $72 billion on alternative energy in the last four years, a 14,000% increase, and all we got to show for it was bankruptcies and new tariffs on China – and China was the only part of the solar equation that made economic sense, so why Energy Secretary Stephen Chu declared we were in a ‘race’ with them over cheap solar panels is a mystery. 

But wait!

Rather than spend money making older buildings more energy efficient, which has a guaranteed benefit in both emissions and money, California has instead given rebates and subsidies for businesses and homeowners and the state forces utilities to buy the electricity at full price.

Christopher Martin and Mark Chediak at the San Francisco Chronicle note that San Diego Gas&Electric will be shifting about $200 million in annual costs to customers without panels. Solar customers “avoid charges, not just for energy, but also the costs of the transmission and distribution system. That’s why we say it is not sustainable,” Dan Skopec, vice president of regulatory affairs for San Diego’s Sempra Energy, the utility’s owner, told them.  

Martin and Chediak say Pacific Gas  &  Electric will pass on about $700 million in annual costs to people without solar systems while Southern California Edison will hit people with about $400 million annually – $1.3 billion from just three utilities.

SOooo. . the cost of solar is really hurting people who can least afford it.  But it just feels good to say you support it and feeling good is apparently better than actually being good.