Replies

Thanks for the answers. I have done solar on my own as well (no subsidies, no grid tie to "sell" power to the grid). I did not mean to defame you for having PV. You have used it where it is the best possible solution, and I believe it is also appropriate with grid tie in some situations (e.g. where one's excess power is immediately used by a neighbor for A/C as it would be in the desert SW).

My immediate concern is (and always has been), the net metering law here in Virginia and that does not apply to you whatsoever.

Sorry for my hasty and messy rhetoric. In stead of “What does that mean?” I should probably have written something more like “Retail? I don’t understand.”

Where I wrote that “I also disagree with sponsored propaganda that defames everyone who has a PV solar system,” I was referring to authors of many of the opinion articles like the one above this thread—not to anyone making comments about it.

We don’t want, for example, attempts at property vandalism to result from their generalizations against everyone who uses PV solar systems. They should focus their complaints on the efforts of constituents, lobbyists and their pocket politicians demanding legislation for subsidies and even tax credits (complicating the tax system instead of simplifying it, redirecting revenue collection efforts to other taxpayers, etc.).

"...and I believe it is also appropriate with grid tie in some situations (e.g. where one's excess power is immediately used by a neighbor for A/C as it would be in the desert SW)."

That's a great idea that I was unaware of.

"My immediate concern is (and always has been), the net metering law here in Virginia and that does not apply to you whatsoever."

I'm at a sparsely populated location on the Rockies. But there are many in other kinds of terrain and states, who also purchased lots too far from power lines with low enough voltages for feasible transformers. Yes, we neglected to do enough research on a lot and a state and county government before buying.

More hasty writing follows, but it might contain useful information for some.

But the hardship consequence of being far from power lines is here and needed to be dealt with. Things have also changed. Rates are up, from what we've read, and were already fairly high in some rural areas.

Our system is also less susceptible to ugly weather than the local power company's much larger, more extensive and more costly system (high wind load, spraying ice, closed highways during winter). Granted, we need to have extra components in storage, although none have failed so far. But we don't need to import huge transformers from long distances in the event of failures.

For some of us, studying and carefully doing electrical work, safety, the NEC, PV solar tech., power consumption of various appliances and alternative appliances (no electric dryer, no electric range, no air conditioning, no forced air heating and the like) can make the costs over time very low.

Someone who doesn't have time for all of that might consider hiring a licensed individual electrician instead of a PV solar installer (money vacuums, many of them are). It's part of an electrician's job, and PV modules (solar panels) are much less expensive for the time being.

Years of extra study and tinkering are required, but the benefits might be worthwhile. We'll see. An amount of tens of thousands of dollars is much to some of us but little to others.

There is one other benefit to having less centralized, more distributed energy production: generally more security. That would work out much better, though, if each system owner were to learn as much as possible about batteries (and safety), power consumption of various appliances and appliance alternatives.

Some power companies might do well to try to further distribute and isolate some of their own facilities in good time. It could make market sense in this period of physical changes (not the phony global warming story but the real physical changes) and hysteria produced in exaggerations by media companies.