Net metering ( Florida style )

[Davebones]

I see Florida just passed ( House bill 741 ) which would effect net metering . How do you guy's in the industry see this playing out for the customers ?

 

[pv_n00b]

I'm not familiar with that particular bill but IMO NEM is going to be under a great deal of pressure in the future and is probably on the way out. What does that mean for customers? More storage, less export, more self-consumption. With NEM on the way out the new attack on solar will be through additional and higher fixed monthly fees imposed on customers with solar. Utilities want their money every month, and they will work hard to get it. If they can't get it by selling customers electricity they will get it for just being there.

 

[Fred B]

They'll never do anything that'll turn out in the customers favor. Everything I've read on it indicates that it would really limit any future private solarization as the incentive would be basically gone, and all benefit goes to POCO. And anyone that already has solar will be on loosing end with deep cut on reimbursement rate of private generation fed into grid.

 

[analog8484]

The effects of ending NEM is well documented (Hawaii, Nevada) ... huge drop in new rooftop installs. Without NEM, storage demand will likely increase for the reduced new installs but not as much as many pundits have predicted. Hawaii dropped NEM more than 6 years ago and storage is still only found in ~10% of solar homes. Ultimately, cost has to fall significantly without NEM. For years, rooftop solar cost was predicted to decrease to $1/W installed. It's nowhere near that. In fact, cost for rooftop solar and storage have increased recently.

 

[Coppersmith]

I sub for a solar contractor. He is very worried he will lose most of his business.

 

[Hv&Lv]

We will probably look at consumer demand metering and higher basic facilities fees for solar accounts, plain and simple.