Thousands of private solar panel owners in Nevada are facing a sharp rise in their electricity bill. Nevada’s public utility company, NV Energy, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, is fighting to rescind the net metering program they’ve been had for citizens whom have installed solar panels on their homes. SolarCity, on the other hand, is the largest manufacturer and leaser of solar panels in the United States, and is owned by Elon Musk
SolarCity thrives in Nevada as it is an ideal location for personalized solar panels, with clean sunny skies about 80% of the year, as well as an energy buy-back program known as net metering, that is offered for homeowners to transfer unused electricity back to the in return for offset electricity bills. Many homeowners have invested heavily in their own solar panels based on the belief that they would be saving money on electricity bills in the years to come. However, the bait-and-switch that NV Energy and policy makers have voted upon would simultaneously increase the electricity bills of solar panel owners’ homes by 40% and decrease the amount they are paid for the power sold back to the grid, therefore effectively destroying this movement.
NV Energy’s reasoning for this rise in customer cost are that by paying less for electricity provided by the utility company, these solar panel owners are making it unfair for the other homeowners that do not own solar panels, as solar panel owners would not be paying their fair share for the grid. However, I see this as an antiquated way of thinking. Nevada has the opportunity to be a market leader is this field seeing as they are so blessed with by their naturally renewable resources. Elon Musk had capitalized on a situation that could both reduce the population’s dependence on green house gases and make economic sense for both the buyer and seller, and early adopters and the environment should not be punished for the innovation.
Of course NV Energy is going to charge solar power users higher fees now, so that the company doesn’t lose out on revenues. I agree with you Yuxi- this is not a fair move and is such a ‘corporate’ and selfish tactic from the company’s side because it just ensures that NV Energy gets all of its revenues from users’ electrical bills. I think that since some consumers are investing so much money in solar powers to reduce their energy usage, they should be rewarded for doing so, and their electrical bills should be reduced. Consumers should be paying however much electrical energy they are using, so the fact that NV Energy is charging solar power users (who use the least amount of electrical energy than regular consumers) higher than regular prices, is absolutely unfair.