Congress Asked To Eliminate $270 Million A Year In Solar Subsidies

The Daily Caller ^ | 04/26/2017 | Andrew Follett

[MaxistheBest]

Conservative groups wrote a letter to Congress Tuesday asking lawmakers on the appropriations committee to eliminate a solar subsidy program worth $270 million.

Conservatives want Congress to pull funding from the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative, citing recent investigations that found the program provided subsidies for rooftop solar power.

The letter calls SunShot the “ground zero of the solar subsidy machine,” arguing that it gives out millions of dollars in subsidies through net metering programs. Such programs force utilities to buy the electricity from rooftop solar panels at up to six times the market price, effectively forcing non-solar residents to pay more to maintain the grid.

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Researchers have found that expanding net metering or maintaining it for long periods of time will drive up power prices. Without government support from net metering, solar energy is non-viable, according to a 2015 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“Under net metering regimes, owners of rooftop solar panel installations gain from the sale of the electricity they produce,” Yeatman said. “However, they don’t contribute to upkeep of the physical infrastructure of electricity transmission and distribution.”

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Net metering increases electricity prices for American families and redistributes money from poorer individuals who don’t own solar panels to richer ones who do, according to a study by the free market Institute for Energy Research (IER).

[dp0622]

NO MORE SUBSIDIES!!! Nobody subsidized my vending machine route when I was a young man.

I asked for 200 cases on credit once and the guy said “you already have cases on credit!!!”

He was right. I had to sell more supply already in the machines and spend less that week or so.

ALL of us budget.

Not the govt.

[Vlad The Inhaler]

Get the federal government out of the marketplace.

Let solar and wind power compete in the marketplace without federal government subsidies.

When the federal government subsidizes solar what you have in effect is the government using taxpayer money to partner with the solar companies and compete with existing energy sources and technologies.

[House Atreides]

Yep, no more government playing favorites. It merely leads to misallocation of scarce economic resources and lowers the economy’s efficiency below what it would be in the absence of the subsidies.

[TBP]

I agree. Eliminate all subsidies.

[dr_lew]

The Second Law of Thermodynamics strikes again.

Or as we might paraphrase it in this case, “You can’t fool Mother Nature”.

[MaxistheBest]

They want us to believe that solar is here and real and affordable but they can’t find anybody in FLORIDA to buy it without a huge subsidy. What a crock!!! They don’t tell you what the upfront costs are and of course nobody talks about the additional annual costs of insurance on the solar panels.

I was told that depending on your “Hurricane Zone” your insurance will go up anywhere from $500 to $1,200 A YEAR!!! That means by year 20-25, you will have paid for your system twice and that’s not counting regular maintenance like cleaning the panels, replacing panels that fail, etc..

There are reasons almost all homes in Florida don’t have solar panels.

[dp0622]

Wow that was great.

I can write SOMEWHERE close to that well sometimes.

But once I say it in a NYC accent, it sounds like John Gotti talking Economics :)

to misallocation of scarce economic resources and lowers the economy’s efficiency...

That’s great there.

Dems don’t understand and we ARE SO ingrained that I thought at first you typed earthly resources :)

They’ve gotten to me.

They DONT UNDERSTAND or DONT WANT to understand what you so eloquently wrote. Money is a RESOURCE. VERY SCARCE in govt right now!

[SpaceBar]

Subsidies = socialism.

[Nateman]

In Phoenix we have these green bicycles that appeared all over town grouped near the train stations. I’ve never seen anybody use them. I figured there had to be federal funding behind it and sure enough it was exactly what I thought, just another federal boondoggle.

[bray]

300 million here, 300 million there and before you know it you are talking about real money.

[dp0622]

Incredible.

How long would the list of boondoggles be if there was a website for All Americans to report fed waste.

I would gather 100s of thousands.

[spokeshave]

In Phoenix we have these green bicycles that appeared all over town grouped near the train stations. I’ve never seen anybody use them

Same where ever the green bicycles are introduced

In China they make huge piles of them

[9YearLurker]

Not to worry, Ivanka has Trump heeling on her pet “climate change” issue:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-may-stay-paris-climate-accord-caveats-210305667.html

[BilLies]

Don’t worry, New York state’s Cuomo will pick up the shortfall of the withdrawal of Federal subsidies.
Another day goes by and Cuomo grafts another source of income to the Democrat political coffers..... maybe.
......
Is Cuomo building a solar plant that will never open?
By NY Post Editorial Board
October 3, 2016 | 12:38am.........
“Taxpayers are footing the bill not just to build the SolarCity factory in Buffalo, but to equip it. Only then is it to be leased, for a dollar a year — to a company that right now is trying to stave off bankruptcy.”
http://nypost.com/2016/10/03/is-cuomo-building-a-solar-plant-that-will-never-open/

[Dad was my hero]

I've not seen any of that and I live about 2 miles from the Gulf coast (Palm Harbor, FL) and have solar. My insurance didn't change and the only "subsidy" I saw was in the form of federal income tax tax credits.

All of my solar goes to my house first, any excess goes into the grid. If I over produce I see a "credit" on my bill that only goes to offset a later bill where my system didn't produce as much as I used. I've yet to receive a penny from the power company and my last 5 electric bills were all essentially zero - we overproduced and it went into the grid.

I see so many articles posted on solar and I find few of them contain accurate information, at least from my experience.

[Ben Ficklin]

Net Metering is already being phased out at the state and local level. With behind the meter batteries, you don’t need net metering

[JAKraig]

I live in Kentucky, we have a net metering law but it is only that the power company has to give you back whatever you put in. They can sell your “green” energy for more if they want but they don't give you anything for it.

I make about 60KW a day and only use about 30-40 a day depending on how much a/c is required. My batteries will give me about 10 to 15 days of storage but I would really never take my battery down that far. If I ever need more than 5 days of battery I would start the generator and charge the battery. My generator is only 16KW and really only gives me about 15KW which only gives me about 62 amps to charge with. Maybe 85 to 90% of that will go into the battery so that if I run 6 or 7 hours every other day I can probably get by especially if I don't run A/C.

I have quite bit of money invested in my system but one of the reasons I did it was because of Federal Tax incentives. Basically I get a tax credit of up to 1/3rd of my expenditure up to $50,000. It is hard to spend less that 50G’s for full house solar with a battery and generator backup unless you do ALL the labor. There are a few electrical changes that have to be made by a licensed electrician and inspected but I have done nearly all the labor.

If I live long enough it will pay for itself.

I really doubt if I would have gotten it without the subsidy but my purpose was independence not cost savings. If we have an Ice storm or tornado that takes the rest of the area out I will still have power. If the SHTF I'm still able to have a freezer and hot water and normal electric. I expect I will have to put up blackout curtains if I want to turn the lights on at night if everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

I don't agree with subsidies but, they were there so I took advantage of them.