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Finishline42

(1,091 posts)
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 09:35 AM Sep 2020

Alabama Public Service Commission Upholds and Increases 'Sun Tax' on Solar Power Users

Not the direction a Southern State should be taking, IMO. (Covers the southern part of Alabama, as TVA covers the northern part of AL).

At some point will it prove to be counter-productive to stopping Solar? Does the est $9,000 additional in fees over the life of the system actually provide an incentive towards the purchase of a Powerwall or equivalent and get off the grid entirely?

Energy regulators in Alabama voted Tuesday to uphold what critics have dubbed a "sun tax" on people who put solar panels on their homes and businesses across much of the state.

The Alabama Public Service Commission, which regulates the investor-owned Alabama Power Co., not only rejected a petition by the Southern Environmental Law Center to end the company's extra monthly fee for customers with their own solar systems, but raised that fee by 8 percent.

Alabama Power provides electricity to more than 1.4 million customers across the southern two-thirds of the state, including the cities of Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile.

The Alabama Power solar fee is part of what clean-energy advocates have described as among the most regressive solar power policies in the country. Losing the decision after a two-year legal battle before an administrative law judge and the commission was a blow, said attorney Keith Johnston, who directs the law center's Alabama office.

snip

The utility has been charging a $5 per kilowatt monthly fee. For an average 5-kilowatt rooftop solar system, the fee results in an additional $300 charge per year, or approximately $9,000 over the life of the panels, slashing solar customers' average savings in half, the law center contends.

The new fee will be $5.41 per kilowatt monthly
.


https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01092020/alabama-public-service-commission-solar-sun-tax

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Alabama Public Service Commission Upholds and Increases 'Sun Tax' on Solar Power Users (Original Post) Finishline42 Sep 2020 OP
We are up against some really nasty people w/lots of money Botany Sep 2020 #1
Yup SheltieLover Sep 2020 #2
Many of our politicians are owned in part by the fossil fuel businesses Botany Sep 2020 #4
Having a minor monthly change... nycbos Sep 2020 #3
Should I also pay extra when I insulate my house? Finishline42 Sep 2020 #5
What are the incremental costs that utilities avoid by not adding more capacity in their network? OAITW r.2.0 Sep 2020 #6
Exactly Miguelito Loveless Sep 2020 #10
Minor? Hardly... Miguelito Loveless Sep 2020 #9
I'm adding 6500 watts of solar capacity to my home in Central Maine. OAITW r.2.0 Sep 2020 #7
I think the fairest way to do this would be a flat fee based on the amperage of the utility hookup. hunter Sep 2020 #8
Despise battery systems? Miguelito Loveless Sep 2020 #11

Botany

(70,291 posts)
1. We are up against some really nasty people w/lots of money
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 09:38 AM
Sep 2020

Solar comes right to your home and to put a fee on it is just bullshit.

Botany

(70,291 posts)
4. Many of our politicians are owned in part by the fossil fuel businesses
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 09:51 AM
Sep 2020

And this is an example of it.

nycbos

(6,033 posts)
3. Having a minor monthly change...
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 09:46 AM
Sep 2020

... for solor seems fair because when the sun isn't shining you are using the grid and should pay for it's upkeep. But a tax like this is BS

Finishline42

(1,091 posts)
5. Should I also pay extra when I insulate my house?
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 10:18 AM
Sep 2020

How about if I install a wood burning insert that reduces the need for utility power when it's cold?

Of course not but that's the same idea.

Something else to consider is line loss. How far away is the power plant that you get electricity from? How much of what is produced is lost in the travels thru wires and transformers to get to your house? One source has it between 8% and 15%.

If I have a solar system and the excess is going to the grid I'm helping to power my neighbors and very little is lost. I'm also not using as much during a time when the AC is on when the cooling load is at it's peak.

The truth is utilities are fighting to keep solar from doing to them what the internet has done to newspapers.

OAITW r.2.0

(23,862 posts)
6. What are the incremental costs that utilities avoid by not adding more capacity in their network?
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 10:22 AM
Sep 2020

That never seems to get factored into the discussion.

Miguelito Loveless

(4,438 posts)
9. Minor? Hardly...
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 11:45 AM
Sep 2020

Also, I pay the utility company in my state $15 a month for the privilege of being a customer before I use a single watt. Solar arrays provide them with power they do NOT have to pay for, that they can then sell to other customers at 100% mark up. Solar arrays help them balance grid demand during the day.

My state also charges me an extra fee to drive an EV, the argument being I don't buy gasoline, so I should contribute to road upkeep. Cool, no complaint, except the fee they charge means I pay more than an SUV/pick up which pollute more and damage the roads more.

These fees are courtesy of monopolies trying to prevent competition.

OAITW r.2.0

(23,862 posts)
7. I'm adding 6500 watts of solar capacity to my home in Central Maine.
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 10:26 AM
Sep 2020

I can't really justify it on cost savings, but given my location and orientation to the sun, it will enhance the property value. I'm on a secondary road and pretty isolated...last year I had 7 days w/o power. I burn wood with oil back-up, but it sucks not having electrical power.

hunter

(38,264 posts)
8. I think the fairest way to do this would be a flat fee based on the amperage of the utility hookup.
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 11:27 AM
Sep 2020

It might be five dollars a month for a 10 amp 240 volt connection, fifty dollars for a 100 amp connection, etc.

A certain number of kilowatt hours could be included in that fee.

My great grandma had two forty watt light bulbs and a radio in her house. She never paid more than the minimum connection fee. Years after my great grandfather had passed away she still resented that my great grandfather had bought into rural electrification to support his useless and expensive radio hobby. She had a ranch to run, she didn't need electricity any more than her ancestors did.

My wife and I lived quite comfortably for a few years in an old house with a 20 amp 120 volt connection. The only annoyance was we couldn't run the window air conditioner and do our laundry at the same time.

Here in California residential electricity is sold on a sliding scale. The more you use, the more each kilowatt-hour costs. The goal is to reduce overall carbon emissions and to shut down the dirtiest power plants.

In other parts of the nation more electricity sold equals more profits for the utilities. Building codes require 200 amp electrical service.

Air condition your entire house to 70 degrees day and night, continuously heat your hot tub, take long showers, good for you!

Some utilities offer discounts the more electricity you buy. Solar power breaks these business models.

Unfortunately getting off the grid entirely isn't easy, even with modern batteries. In periods with no sunshine dirty generators are frequently used as backup power. Small generators make a lot more pollution than power plants, both air pollution, and in the replacement of crankcase oil, even when this oil is recycled. And these generators don't last. A big power plant will last fifty years or more. A home generator won't.

Battery recycling is simply a nightmare at this time. Anyone responsible for the long term maintenance of battery systems soon learns to despise them.

If you have enough money you can pay someone else to despise your battery systems, out of sight, out of mind, the system calls Elon Musk's guys automatically when it senses the first stages of failure, but batteries still remain despicable.

Most battery systems I've seen claim more than five or ten cents a kilowatt hour for continuing maintenance and replacement. Five cents seems optimistic to me. That's in addition to the cost of the power itself.

Sunshine may be free, but the cost of converting it to electricity and storing it is not, nor is the cost of backup power.

And the problems are similar at any scale, from home electrical systems to entire electrical grids.

Miguelito Loveless

(4,438 posts)
11. Despise battery systems?
Wed Sep 2, 2020, 11:55 AM
Sep 2020

Huh? As someone with such a system, and who drives EVs, I do not understand why I should despise them. Li-Ion are certainly cleaner and easier to handle than lead-acid batteries, and are quite recyclable even with today's tech. EV batteries can last a car 200K+, after which the batteries can be recycled into 2nd life as battery backup for home/commercial/grid scale projects.

My solar array is power generation capacity that the utility paid ZERO dollars for. Why should I then pay them more money, on top of the monthly fee they already charge me for line maintenance?

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