Solar construction is dominated by energy and finance companies, with large projects in places that don't have subsidies. Popular enthusiasm is barely relevant.
Hm - what's the impact of roof solar in California? My brother's electric rates went from $0.24 per kwh to $0.46 and we suspect its because the power company is recouping its losses from buying all that off-peak rooftop generation at retail rates. So he's installing rooftop solar too, just so he's on the other side of that equation.
relevance: its popular enthusiasm that got the buyback rate set at retail instead of wholesale. Thus fueling a statewide boom in pointless rooftop solar.
Doesn't make sense to me. For the costs to be that significant, net metered kilowatt hours would have to be a huge chunk of their generation, and rooftop solar is smaller than utility solar, which is maybe ~10% of the market, and rooftop doesn't net meter most generation, it consumes it off the grid.
It could well be the case that solar is changing the cost mix and driving up prices, but I doubt net metering is driving that.
But they're related in a strange way: they raise the rates a penny, they have to pay a penny more back to solar at 'retail rates'. So its a funny feedback loop.
