Topic: Obama wants to launch another solar scam called "Solar Ready Vets"

[Libertas]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-05/here-comes-solyndra-20-obama-hire-75000-solar-workers

Don't fund this and defund all its illigitimate brothers and sisters..that's what should but probably won't happen.

Oh, and did y'all know that people with solar with excess capacity can sell that power to local utilities who have to pay mandated higher per Kw prices for that...and gosh, I wonder how that cost impacts normal distribution chain customers?

Hey, the old triple-pork no reach-around wham bam eff you, man!

[Weisshaupt]

Oh, and did y'all know that people with solar with excess capacity can sell that power to local utilities who have to pay mandated higher per Kw prices for that...and gosh, I wonder how that cost impacts normal distribution chain customers?

Train them to do what exactly? Make Panels? Install them? As far as I know the tax credit expires this year - so solar installations will be 30%  more expensive. ( and to take 30% off your PV system, you need to be already paying it in taxes.  The Solar energy industry is going to completely tank when those tax credits expire.. I made a point of thanking each of my liberal neighbors for paying for the system. ( though really the fed paid for it with printed money)

And yes I do know the power companies  are mandated ( in many places, but not all)  to pay higher prices..  but, at least here in Colorado, that higher price is the retail energy price -- its called net-metering.  If you take their power at $0.10/KW then if you make power they buy it at $0.10 a KW.  The vast majority of homeowner installations have no battery, so the sell power during the day and the use power at night.  The Vast majority also buy more than they sell.  SO it hurts the bottoms line of a power company in that Net Metering customers have smaller bills.  It usually does not result in huge losses for the power company.. and they have extra power during the day  when generally they need it.   Producers over a certain size ( 10kw array)  are no longer considered residential and therefore are not eligible for net metering - and sell to the power company at wholesale rates ...

I am not saying that training 75,000 vets in a career that will go no where till there is decent battery technology is a good idea. Its all a scam - including the 30%  tax credit nudge and net-metering.  Net Metering just isn't nearly as destructive as the other components.
 

[Libertas]

Oh, and did y'all know that people with solar with excess capacity can sell that power to local utilities who have to pay mandated higher per Kw prices for that...and gosh, I wonder how that cost impacts normal distribution chain customers?

Train them to do what exactly? Make Panels? Install them? As far as I know the tax credit expires this year - so solar installations will be 30%  more expensive. ( and to take 30% off your PV system, you need to be already paying it in taxes.  The Solar energy industry is going to completely tank when those tax credits expire.. I made a point of thanking each of my liberal neighbors for paying for the system. ( though really the fed paid for it with printed money)

And yes I do know the power companies  are mandated ( in many places, but not all)  to pay higher prices..  but, at least here in Colorado, that higher price is the retail energy price -- its called net-metering.  If you take their power at $0.10/KW then if you make power they buy it at $0.10 a KW.  The vast majority of homeowner installations have no battery, so the sell power during the day and the use power at night.  The Vast majority also buy more than they sell.  SO it hurts the bottoms line of a power company in that Net Metering customers have smaller bills.  It usually does not result in huge losses for the power company.. and they have extra power during the day  when generally they need it.   Producers over a certain size ( 10kw array)  are no longer considered residential and therefore are not eligible for net metering - and sell to the power company at wholesale rates ...

I am not saying that training 75,000 vets in a career that will go no where till there is decent battery technology is a good idea. Its all a scam - including the 30%  tax credit nudge and net-metering.  Net Metering just isn't nearly as destructive as the other components.

My provider is getting squeezed, they say so all the time, and I in fact voted for the Co-Op Board elections online yesterday and chose one challenger over an incumbent who apparently wants to get more aggressive with pushing back on mandates, maybe we'll have more willing to do so, not that there is much time left to effect anything...

It sucks to be in a position to want to fight this crap and also knowing it is pretty futile to do so and wondering if just letting go and let is all burn isn't the right choice (which it probably is)...it's just that that letting go thing is so against my basic nature...

But the reality is I probably don't have to worry about it either way...the trend is obvious and the end result is practically preordained...

[Weisshaupt]

My provider is getting squeezed, they say so all the time, and I in fact voted for the Co-Op Board elections online yesterday and chose one challenger over an incumbent who apparently wants to get more aggressive with pushing back on mandates, maybe we'll have more willing to do so, not that there is much time left to effect anything...

Well of course they say they are getting squeezed,  because your local PUC is who controls the rates -- not your co-op - at least if things run there like they do here. . They have to convince the PUC that they are losing money and that the rates need to be higher. But the Co-op is probably guaranteed a certain profit margin.  Natural monopoly businesses are never really a free market.  Rural co-ops always have higher operating expenses because they have so many more miles of cable per customer, and they always have to convince some board that they can't do it as cheaply as the big guys in the cities. They probably also have more takers on solar in their service area because the prices have to be higher.  The co-op that serves the Bugout  used to install two meters - one that ran forward at retail and one that ran backward at wholesale.  Then State law changed and mandated  net-metering -  meaning that they just became a giant free battery for the Solar users.  But they have to run the power plant anyway-- and that is a whole complicated mess trying to manage loads as they change. If your co-op just delivers power without their own generation plant.. then they can get into trouble.. because they have to buy the KWs from elsewhere and deliver them at what is essentially no charge. And if the use profile is off, and power isn't needed more during the day in your area, then  they can't recoup the cost from what is sold back to them.. because there is no demand for it at that time.

So yes,  net-metering is a crock for them, but since power companies are essentially just for-profit cronies of the state apparatus, I guess I have a hard time feeling bad for them. In the end the PUC will  always make sure they earn a living.. and guaranteed income is a hard thing to come by.





 

[Alphabet Soup]

I was looking at an online article about Kalifornia's water woes and it featured a bunch of pictures of mega-mansions, all with their lush yards. A surprising number of them also had sizable solar arrays tucked away on their property. I wonder what sort of sweetheart deals they have going on?

[Libertas]

My provider is getting squeezed, they say so all the time, and I in fact voted for the Co-Op Board elections online yesterday and chose one challenger over an incumbent who apparently wants to get more aggressive with pushing back on mandates, maybe we'll have more willing to do so, not that there is much time left to effect anything...

Well of course they say they are getting squeezed,  because your local PUC is who controls the rates -- not your co-op - at least if things run there like they do here. . They have to convince the PUC that they are losing money and that the rates need to be higher. But the Co-op is probably guaranteed a certain profit margin.  Natural monopoly businesses are never really a free market.  Rural co-ops always have higher operating expenses because they have so many more miles of cable per customer, and they always have to convince some board that they can't do it as cheaply as the big guys in the cities. They probably also have more takers on solar in their service area because the prices have to be higher.  The co-op that serves the Bugout  used to install two meters - one that ran forward at retail and one that ran backward at wholesale.  Then State law changed and mandated  net-metering -  meaning that they just became a giant free battery for the Solar users.  But they have to run the power plant anyway-- and that is a whole complicated mess trying to manage loads as they change. If your co-op just delivers power without their own generation plant.. then they can get into trouble.. because they have to buy the KWs from elsewhere and deliver them at what is essentially no charge. And if the use profile is off, and power isn't needed more during the day in your area, then  they can't recoup the cost from what is sold back to them.. because there is no demand for it at that time.

So yes,  net-metering is a crock for them, but since power companies are essentially just for-profit cronies of the state apparatus, I guess I have a hard time feeling bad for them. In the end the PUC will  always make sure they earn a living.. and guaranteed income is a hard thing to come by.

The demand thing is the bigger squeeze, demand has lessened as a share, and yes the PUC is just a political construct to give cover to the politicians that they give a rip about your concerns...no matter who the "your" is...but in the end it is designed much like union negotiating positions in union industries - it is gamed.

Like anything, if there was more "real" competition for products and services, we wouldn't be talking about any of this...

[Libertas]

I was looking at an online article about Kalifornia's water woes and it featured a bunch of pictures of mega-mansions, all with their lush yards. A surprising number of them also had sizable solar arrays tucked away on their property. I wonder what sort of sweetheart deals they have going on?

Kalifornia is about to ratchet up the stupid to even higher levels...and the disparity between the halves and aint's is about to become more stark...how many of the progressive glitterati are going to be chased down the street to cough up that excessive shower fine...idiots there complain about letting government into the bedroom (a phaggtronic argument!) on one hand and are what, going to let them waltz into your bathroom?

 

[John Florida]

  When the time comes it will be back to well and sceptic system and that will be that.I'm sick of the city water sewer bullsh*t that never ends.

[Libertas]

That'll get tougher with the Fed & State EPA's on your butt...last thing government wants to see is people operating independently from their control...

[Libertas]

Oh, and yet another example of why avoided smart meters is just common sense...

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/04/06/water-authorities-to-use-new-tool-in-fight-against-water-wasters/

...why give the state and its lackeys any control over you?