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Utilities Should Worry; Rooftop Solar Could Soon Cut Their Profit
Lucas123 writes A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicts that distributed rooftop solar panel installations will grow from 0.2% market penetration today to 10% by 2022, during which time they're likely to cut utility profits from 8% to 41%. Using those same metrics, electricity rates for utility customers will grow only by as much as 2.7% over the next eight years. By comparison, the cost of electricity on average rose 3.1% from 2013 to 2014. The study was performed for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under the U.S. Department of Energy. One of the main purposes of the study was to evaluate measures that could be pursued by utilities and regulators to reduce the financial impacts of distributed photovoltaics.
Not if you're legally required to use some power from the grid or face an immediately levied tax (it's not a fine!). I could even see some rationale behind it: something about national emergency preparedness, keeping the grid working, and jobs. Battery banks beyond a certain size could be made illegal for home use (just like rainwater storage in the western USA) to encourage uploading excess to the grid and require pulling from the grid in dark hours (the electrical companies become flywheel companies). Everyone pays more to the utilities. That's nature's way.