Solar power now makes economic sense in the United States if electricity price from the grid exceeds 15¢/kwhr even in northern states like New York and New Jersey where there is less sunshine than in the southwest. Deutsche Bank recently concluded that solar power will be as cheap or cheaper than grid electricity in every state except three. Residential rooftop solar installation is booming--growing on average 66% a year--because solar panels are less expensive and installation costs can be avoided altogether with a lease-back arrangement. So much residential solar is being installed that utilities are beginning to grumble about "
freeloading" solar owners. Hawaii's largest utility has blocked new solar arrays from hooking up to the grid. The problem say the utilities is that solar people are not paying their share of the cost of grid maintenance. Most solar installation only cover about half a household's electricity use. Arizona Public Service says that each solar home places an economic burden on conventional homeowners of as much as $1000 a year in Arizona.
The distribution cost issue is not just limited to Arizona. About 40 states allow property owners to sell back to the grid, and most regulators require utilities to buy it even though solar is an intermittent power source. If solar arrays where to become as ubiquitous as chimneys, utilities could become merely electric grid custodians with little prospect for profitable energy generation. The Edison Electric Institute, an industry funded research group, concluded last year that Americans getting off the grid could push electric utilities into a spiral of fewer sales to cover maintenance of a decrepit 20th century grid system. That scenario is probably biased.
Solar only accounts for less than one quarter of one percent of electricity generated in the US, but the amount of sunlight has the potential to provide 100 times the US annual power demand. Regulators, at least in Arizona, seem willing to allow electric utilities to recoup distributive costs from solar customers. In November of 2013 Arizona's utility commission voted to impose a charge of 70¢ per kw of installed solar or an average of $75 a month, which solar users promptly called a "sun tax". APS calculated that the grid costs $60 a month per household.
Other countries experiencing a solar boom, Germany, Australia and Spain, are experiencing similar cost woes.
{15.05.14, Yes Virginia, It Can Be Done} Given the disagreeable prospect that the grid could become "an antiquated back-up system of 130 million wooden poles" in the future, utilities are beginning a push-back against roof-top solar. Federal solar subsidies are scheduled to end in 2016, but if private installation costs drop to 50¢ per watt and improved home storage devices become widely available, a solar nation could be a reality.
