Comment on Existing California solar customers may get blindsided with net metering cuts

MyOpinion@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• simplejack@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It’s so weird that a basic public utility is totally owned by a private company. Roads and water are maintained by the state in my county. Why not power?

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  • Dearth@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Water is owned by private business on California too.

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    • simplejack@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah, just speaking for my county. I live in a county that has water and sewage run by a public utility. Also, the county has historically had a reputation for having really fantastic water that tastes amazing.

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  • ElegantBiscuit@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Power, water, internet, healthcare, education, transit, there’s a lot of things that should be public utilities or at least with a convincing public option because of the clear conflict of interest between private corporations and social benefit, but aren’t, because money controls politics.

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• RageAgainstTheRich@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Here in europe we’re gonna have to pay the electrical company for the energy our own solar panels generate above a certain amount.

  “Can we just turn them off?”

  “No 😠”

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  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That is nuts. We need to take back power from these companies.

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    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I’m pretty sure this will break the law of thermodynamics.

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      • unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        One of the few laws that we haven’t sorted out a way to break!

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  • Humanius@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Where in Europe is this? Europe isn’t a monolith, after all.
    Here in the Netherlands we (currently) still have the “salderingsregeling” which is used to reimburse people for the solar they feed back into the grid, though that will eventually go away.

    Paying people for solar on the roof is a bit tricky in general, and probably not sustainable long term:

    • The money to maintain the grid has to come from somewhere, and if a lot of people have a bill of zero euros or a negative amount, that system kind of breaks down.
    • The grid has a maximum capacity (especially in residential neighbourhoods) so you cannot pump an infinite amount of power back into the grid. If many houses in a neighbourhood have solar the grid simply cannot cope.

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  • nivenkos@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Because they have to give that energy away in order to keep the grid stable.

    Hopefully better battery storage will make this better in the future.

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  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    What happens if you just…don’t pay the bill?

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    • MyOpinion@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Then you get disconnected.

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      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I thought that was the point of paying so much for solar? To be OFF the grid?

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  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Are they providing support for the things?

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    • MyOpinion@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They provide no support for the solar. If I have problems I have to go to my solar installer.

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      • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Well that’s fucked.

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• 5C5C5C@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  PG&E was literally the villain in the real life Erin Brockovich story.

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