[Cincinatus' Wife]

I read Solar City got a lot of government contracts. Those solar panel rental contracts will make Musk a very rich man (and politicians rolling in campaign dough).

City of Sacramento and SolarCity Announce Plan to Install Solar Power at City Hall and Three Other Sites

Red, white and solar: 160,000 military buildings to get rooftop arrays

[palmer]

I have a couple of solar panels, but I also have batteries in the crawl space. Without power storage, solar is just a leech on the power grid. Solar City and their scam victims are being paid full retail (not wholesale) price for their power before subsidies are added. The power they generate is non-peak and should be a lower wholesale price than peak power.

When my grid power fails, I switch my fridge to battery backup and can run all incidental things like some lights, computers and internet. The rest of my power needs like pumping well water are too much for my small system. In winter I use wood heat which requires no grid power.

But my solar and battery system is a toy. If I wanted cost effective backup power I would simply buy a small generator.