Solar homeowners are used to living an outcast lifestyle.
The solar “revolution” has seen millions of homeowners turning to the power of the Sun to light up their lives. But even the fastest-growing renewable energy sector has faced challenges. And a recent policy change may make things even more confusing for us.
Do you have excess solar power that you are selling back to the national grid?
How our star has powered the world with clean energy
The Sun has become a major source of power that lights up our lives.
We now understand, through years of studies, that the Sun produces trillions of times more energy in one year than what we on Earth use in the same time frame. To simplify that, the Sun produces a year’s worth of energy in just 90 minutes.
Our star doesn’t just light up the planet; in fact, it also influences our hydrologic cycle, that is, evaporation and precipitation.
Solar power: The most popular form of clean energy to power our dreams
The renewable energy sector has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.
The most popular and fastest-growing sub-sector in clean energy is, without a doubt, the solar power industry. For several consecutive years, solar power has accounted for the vast majority of all new electricity added to national grids across the world.
Solar power has even influenced the aviation sector, as companies aim to reduce the use of expensive jet fuels.
Unlike its wind and nuclear cousins, solar power does not require huge plots of land or insane amounts of money to produce. It is the only clean energy resource that is modular and, more importantly, scalable.
We are all growing very tired indeed of the monthly sky-high electricity bills. But as millions of us turn to solar panels to power our homes, a recent policy change has created a significant issue.
One simple policy change that will affect millions
California has implemented the NEM 3.0 policy, which has shaken the solar power sector to its core. Under the previous NEM 2.0 policy, homeowners with solar panels were credited with money for any excess energy that was sold at the full retail rate to the national grid.
The new policy has moved this to a “Net billing” structure that will see credits provided based on national “avoided costs”.
That reduces the credit provided by an astonishing 75%. This will most likely lead to solar homeowners storing their excess energy instead of selling it.
We now know that even the solar power sector has its own problems, but in the grand scope of things, it is still our best bet to develop an off-grid lifestyle. In the Golden State, those of us who installed solar panels have been granted “grandfathering”.
This means that if you purchased your solar panels before April 14, 2023, the NEM 2.0 rates still apply to you for the next 20 years.
The nightmare doesn’t stop in the Golden State
In Arizona, a similar model has been adopted that sees solar power users being paid an “export rate” instead of the full retail price for their excess solar energy. This has led to the state paying far less for solar energy from homeowners when compared to how much the full retail price of energy.
If you rely on solar power to light up your home, and you live in either Arizona or California, selling your excess energy to the state is no longer as profitable as saving the power generated for those “rainy days.”
As 295,000 U.S. households now have solar power, the consensus is that many of them will opt to store their energy to disconnect from the grid. Are you one of the nearly 300,000 who use solar power in your home?
Disclaimer: Our coverage of events affecting companies is purely informative and descriptive. Under no circumstances does it seek to promote an opinion or create a trend, nor can it be taken as investment advice or a recommendation of any kind.