wattmatters
Solar Wizard
This is the bit I don't understand - that people believe power companies are making some kind of profit off our excess solar PV.Hey, if we could do that as a charitable contribution to someone in need, so they received the power we delivered at no cost, we might even do that.
But not as a contribution to PG&E.
In general, feed-in tariffs here are fairly reflective of the average spot wholesale value of the energy at the time it is being supplied to the grid. And (aside from any carbon abatement value) that's all it's worth, indeed given it is a largely non-controllable supply it really should be valued less than grid generators' wholesale price as they have to comply with supply contract standards and market operator directions for ramping up/down supply. Meanwhile I can add or remove supply at will and there's nothing the market operator can do about it.
That the feed-in tariff is fraction of the retail import tariff at that time is simply due to the fact retail tariffs incur various other charges aside from the wholesale cost of energy but it's not like the power companies are making money from it.
If anything FITs are a bit on the generous side. Places with 1:1 net metering, well that's just unsustainable. We ditched that nonsense the best part of a decade ago.
I said nothing about being charged to export. If you are being charged to export then I agree and can understand not wanting to export.Because they want to charge you to give them your power?
This happens here for those who choose to be on wholesale cost pass through arrangements - they need to have good control over their home's energy system so as to avoid exporting at times when spot wholesale prices are negative.
And this is the issue with "selling to the utility wholesale" - it can be a good thing but you need a way to automatically micromanage when you import/export and at what power level since an individual has zero control over the price of the commodity and that prices is typically highly variable.
It means the home solar PV system is no longer a consumer application but more of a prosumer application. It just seems like an awful lot of effort and risk for not a lot of return.