Solar: Should Utility Customers Subsidize Solar Homes?

Here’s a tricky question: should the average electric utility customer pay higher rates so that people who install solar systems can sell power back to the grid?

That question is at the heart of a story today in the L.A. Times about whether to expand a program under which California utilities buy back power from customers with solar panels. Current state law allows utilities to cap solar power purchases at 2.5 percent of their generating capacity; a provision now being debated in Sacramento would quadruple the cap to 10 percent. The piece notes that Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG) could hit the 2.5 percent cap by the end of the year, while Southern California Edison (EIX) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE) are moving more slowly.

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