This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For all its high-minded talk about our energy future, the rooftop solar debate has come down to one fundamental: setting a fair price.
Rocky Mountain Power's decision last week to withdraw its rate structure for net-metering customers and negotiate with the rooftop solar industry is the right thing to do. RMP's first offer wasn't flying, and the utility knew it. At the same time, the rooftop solar companies will need to give, too. Ultimately, it's the Utah Public Service Commission that decides this, and it is likely to be a little less friendly to rooftop solar than the current price scheme.
Someday there could be a debate about whether we even need the power grid Rocky Mountain now provides. We can envision entire communities where rooftop photovoltaic panels connect to high-efficiency batteries to provide continuous power that leaves fossil fuels in the ground, all without paying a power bill.
But that's not the only vision of our solar future. Rocky Mountain is already buying more solar power from large scale commercial producers than the rooftop panels produce. And there will always be a large group — residents and businesses — who just want to pay a bill to make the lights work. That group may even want to encourage the conversion to clean energy, but they don't want to (or can't) convert to rooftop solar. They will always need a grid.
So what's really at stake here is figuring out how much Rocky Mountain Power should be paying rooftop solar customers for the excess power they offer up to the grid. And in that respect, rooftop solar customers need a grid as much as the rest of us. It's where they can effectively "bank" the power they produce.
RMP wants to charge future net meterers under a structure they say would run about $19 a month higher than what existing net meterers pay. It says the higher cost is needed to keep non-solar customers from subsidizing net meterers. The solar industry says that increase would add years to the time it takes to pay off a solar system, effectively pricing customers out of making the investment.
That extra $228 per year is a burden, but it's worth remembering that the rooftop solar companies rely on more than just favorable power rates to support their business. There is also a 30 percent federal tax credit, which takes as much as $10,000 off the cost of system. If that went away, lower net-metering rates may not save them.
Yes, there is a societal benefit to rooftop solar panels, but it requires Rocky Mountain's system to maximize that benefit. The rate structure should be a reflection of that co-existence.