Roof top solar power generation is just a simple distributed generation of electricity. Similar to distributed computing like the SETI at home project.
At critical mass, generating plants can be used less.
I have Solar Panels I send more out than i use. In NJ, the amount sent to the grid is recorded as banked. I pay a service fee of $2.78.
That is about the worst false equivalency I have ever heard.
First the only way that roof top solar generation could ever reach “Critical Mass” is if you could have roof top units that circled the globe all supplying enough generation so that those on the sunny side of the world could supply enough generation for themselves and those on the dark side of the world (we won’t even get in to the complicated matter of transmission line losses).
Then let’s talk about the fact that the SETI at home project works because one they get to use you computing hardware for free, you also supply the power to run that hardware and it is completely voluntary. What the solar panel people do to the investor owned utilities is not voluntary. It is forced on them by law.
You should read this part again.
Residential solar is a disaster for the electric utility. Once the customer installs solar, the utility loses almost all its revenue but keeps nearly all its expenses. The expenses are maintaining a connection to the customer’s house including the distribution system that carries electricity from the generating plants to the customer. The generating plants still have to be ready to provide regular quantities of electricity to each solar homeowner as soon as the sun sets and whenever it is cloudy.