Saturday, September 6, 2014

The Future of Mandatory Solar Energy Provided to Homeowners by Utility Companies

Utility companies in California delay to connect packs of batteries installed by Solar City, a San Mateo, CA Company conducting research on lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Tesla Motors. The 100 homes located throughout the state adopted the research program, allowing the groundbreaking batteries into their basements. The batteries store enough electricity generated from solar panels during the daytime, to power the entire house at night.

Involved in the hauling of the program, are several California Utility Companies. Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison, PG&E connected 11 of 100 participants, Southern Edison has not one of the participants connected and San Diego Electric and Gas connected one homeowner for the project, according to Solar City. Homeowners involved in the program jumped at the opportunity for applying for the program. They understand the importance of supplying their own power if the grid went down. Often, earthquakes are huge concern to residents in southern California, and being a part of this pilot program appealed to residents wanting to test the efficiency of the lithium batteries.


PG&E state they are not doing anything the hinder the connection process, it normally takes four to six weeks to hook up the batteries to the grid. Although, residents claim the wait time so far is four months. PG&E implemented an application fee of $800, and $600 for anytime the utility company decides the residence needs a new meter. Southern California Edison requires a fee of $2,898 for connecting a new meter and $600 for the application. This is according to the documentation received by Solar City. Solar City claims the fees are illegal. Their claims of illegal fees seem based on the way the government deals with homeowners applying for solar panel installation.

PG&E charges $800 for each application, plus a $600 fee whenever the utility decides that the solar-and-battery system needs a new electric meter. Southern California Edison charges the same application fee, and $2,898 to install and connect the meter, according to documents Solar City provided to The Chronicle. Trends across the globe show that the economic damage done by burning fossil fuels for energy exceeds the profits from burning fossil fuels. The greenhouse gasses produced from burning fossil fuels and health problems stemming from that cause and effect scenario does not support by the fossil fuel burning industry.

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