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Program pays top dollar for extra power
Workers install solar panels on a house
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TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: In Massachusetts, electric power is about to get a lot cheaper. At least for some customers. Today the Bay State started a program that lets home and business owners who generate their own power, say from solar panels or wind turbines, they can sell it back to the electric company. And they will get a very nice price for it as Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman explains.
MITCHELL HARTMAN: Every morning I come to my office, turn on my computer, my printer, and start drawing juice. I also get lots of morning sun. I could put up solar panels and save public radio a few dollars.
But if I generated more power than I needed, in most places I couldn't sell it back to the power company.
In Massachusetts the power company would have to pay me top dollar, says State Energy Secretary Ian Bowles.
IAN BOWLES: Starting now, if you own solar panels on your home, or you have a small-scale wind turbine, and you want to sell extra power back to the grid, you'll now be able to do that at a very advantageous rate.
California will do the same thing starting in January and lots of other states are working on similar programs. Massachusetts now leads the pack, because it's making utilities pay retail rates for the electricity customers generate.
TERRY TAMMINEN: So it really encourages you to become a renewable energy entrepreneur.
California energy consultant Terry Tamminen says these policies encourage alternatives to fossil fuels. But can a bunch of windmills and rooftop solar panels really make a difference?
TAMMINEN: Boston may not be noted for its sunshine, but neither is Germany, and yet Germany is the second-largest user and producer of solar energy in the world.
For years, Germany has been paying customers a premium for the renewable power they generate. Tamminen says that's largely why it's jumped ahead.
Energy Secretary Ian Bowles says this program will help his state get 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.
I'm confused. Are you talking about Net Metering. It sure sounds like it. In which case it seems we fought this fight a few years back and for the most part won. A quick check of wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_metering#United_States ) shows that only 6 states do not allow net metering. Nine states already pay retail rates.
It would be interesting if any state does what Germany does and really kicked in the renewable funding. If you included environmental cleanup in the cost of our coal based electricity, than renewables would compete at retail rates very effectively. Give me the retail cost of coal electricity including environmental cleanup and climate change containment and I'll happily sell you my PV electricity.
In response to Mr. Rieken. The more PG&E ups your rates the more value you get from your PV panels... meaning the more money you are saving.
Why do people point to Germany's solar program as evidence of "if it can work THERE, it can work ANYWHERE". Just because Germany has made the POLITICAL decision to mandate that a relatively sizable portion of its electricity be derived from solar does not make it a sensible ECONOMIC decision. The US could just as easily mandate that a sizable portion of its electricity come from pedal-powered generators and we could become "the largest user and producer of pedal-powered energy in the world." but would that make any sense? (apart from dealing with the obesity issue, so maybe its not a bad idea after all...)
