[darcane]

Originally Posted by redneck

So, is this where it's all headed...???


The Solar Powered Death Spiral For Utilities Begins – In Hawaii

Utilities rely on large numbers of customers to pay for the gigantic fixed cost infrastructure required to deliver energy to your home. The first 80% of customers is important – but the last 20% of customers are the most important to utilities. They need every customer in their range to participate and pay for the huge infrastructure costs. Utilities can then spread the massive costs of power plants, power lines, and last mile maintenance across the entire pool of paying customers.

Solar disrupts this business model entirely. Solar vastly reduces the energy usage from some customers, and therefore reduces the amount these customers pay to support the infrastructure. Those major fixed costs the utilities must pay – such as the loans to pay for power plants and infrastructure – do not go down at all when people switch to solar.

These fixed costs must then be distributed among a smaller client base. This causes energy prices to go up for the remaining customers. Of course, this just makes solar more attractive to the remaining customers for the utility.

This supports my earlier assumption. Separate the fee to pay the fixed costs of the infrastructure and have all customers pay that, and the "death Spiral" all goes away. That's all this "Sun Tax" is doing.