Comment on Easy-to-use solar panels are coming, but utilities are trying to delay them
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
If your business is critical for modern human living, it should be non-profit. It should be guided by the best management plan of the time, debated and approved by the majority of shareholders. It should open its books and stay open.
Really, it should be government.
My power company is a co-op. They have long term contracts with various providers, so my power bill doesn’t fluctuate much on short term news.
At the end of every year, we get a check in the mail we get a dividend for any excess profit.
Pretty sure all utilities should work that way.
“Non profit” “shareholders”. Pick one.
I assume they meant stakeholders…cuz like yo, that’s us!
Are you saying that electrical power should only be provided by government entities?
Should you be allowed to plug in a solar panel and provide power back to the grid?
Are you a government entity?
MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 4 days ago
May I introduce you to the concept of ‘natural monopoly’.
Basically most natural monopolies (power, phone lines, roads etc) in most places were historically run by governments (because it’s bloody sensible) until the neoliberal movement in the 80s privatized them because ‘private enterprise is more efficient’ (at extracting tax dollars as it turned out) and to balance a few budgets.
Should definitely be ruled a failed experiment and rolled back.
dovahking@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Hold on! You’re telling me every common utility is run by corpos in America? I thought it was limited to only telecom.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It varies by state, but a large majority are.
TronBronson@lemmy.world 3 days ago
So you have a government organization that regulates a private company in most cases. Usually there is a layer of government in there, but profits are private.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 3 days ago
The “natural monopoly” of electrical power is only on the distribution, not the generation of that power. It is reasonable for various generators to compete against each other to meet grid demand.
You should be able to push power back onto the grid. You should not be limited only to taking it off the grid. If you can put more on than you remove, you should be compensated for your generation at the market rate.