Why doesn't every house have solar installed?

[R-T-B]

You're far out of touch with reality. Every single major environmental group from Greenpeace to the Sierra Club opposes the installation of any new dams or hydroelectric power.

Before coal and nuclear? Yeah, no. That's where I'm calling bullshit. I live in a hippie paradise and that's just not true.

 

[Rover4444]

If your home uses no grid power and doesn't sell power back to the grid, then it doesn't. If you sell your excess power, though, you're costing the utility money: a cost which ultimately is borne by others. And even if you don't, maintaining a grid connection for extremely light intermittent use carries a certain cost. Nearly all utilities don't charge line maintenance fees; they subsume that into the kW-hr rate, on the assumption the average household uses more than enough electricity to support those costs. (though to be fair, this second factor is nearly trivial).

Interestingly enough, my local natural gas utility is smarter: it charges customers $50/month (or more for commercial customers) for no usage whatsoever, simply to maintain the pipe to your home.

I knew it, it doesn't actually increase the costs for everybody else. Utility company just charges others for a lost sale. What a racket. By the way, energy companies also charge a minimum nowadays. Oh yeah and the energy you "sold" is at a discounted rate too.

 

[Endymio]

I knew it, it doesn't actually increase the costs for everybody else. Utility company just charges others for a lost sale. What a racket. By the way, energy companies also charge a minimum nowadays.

No, you've failed to understand the math. It's not the "lost sale", it's the fact that forcing a utility to purchase power generally costs them a great deal of money. The grid isn't a big bucket that you just pour electrons in and remove them as needed. Adding power at the wrong time can not only mean they're paying you for something goes entirely to waste, but may actually cost them to dispose of that excess. This is particularly true of solar power, as the periods that you likely have excess are the same periods they're overgenerating solar as well.

In the case where a tiny fraction of customers are net-metering, this factor is small or nonexistent, and the utility can often resell that power at no more than a small loss to them. But again, it's a racket that works only when none of your neighbors are doing the same.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Before coal and nuclear? Yeah, no. That's where I'm calling bullshit. I live in a hippie paradise and that's just not true.

Not sure how it is nowadays, it's been a very long time. But when I was in high school, arguing over this hydro plant was all the rage.

Belo Monte Dam - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[the54thvoid]

Topic is solar. Seems too hard to stick to.

I'll open it back up at OPs request, when/if more relevant info appears about domestic solar.