Arizona's biggest power utility, Arizona Public Service (APS), has announced their intention to implement what would effectively be a tax on the sun.
The whole idea behind net-metering is that if you install a solar system on the roof of your house or business, you can buy power from the grid when you need it, and sell extra power when you have a surplus. Often these rates are advantageous to provide an incentive for renewable energy adoption, a very fair thing considering all the subsidies, direct and indirect, that fossil fuels have had for decades.
But APS would like to start charging a monthly fee to sell clean power back to the grid (in their Orwellian language, they call it a "convenience charge"). A source says that that the fee could be of around $100/month or $1,200/year, enough to change the economic attractiveness of small systems. It's not entirely clear if the fee scales up for larger systems, but that seems likely .... http://www.treehugger.com
But APS would like to start charging a monthly fee to sell clean power back to the grid (in their Orwellian language, they call it a "convenience charge"). A source says that that the fee could be of around $100/month or $1,200/year, enough to change the economic attractiveness of small systems. It's not entirely clear if the fee scales up for larger systems, but that seems likely .... http://www.treehugger.com
