Big power companies scared of solar

David Roberts, writing in the US website, Truth-Out, reports that the Edison Electric Institute (which he describes as ‘typically stodgy and backward-looking’) came up in January with a serious suggestion that solar power and other renewable energy technologies could lay waste to the big power-providers.

At the moment, these ‘regulated monopolies’ thrive on selling power through the national grid that they manage. The more juice is used, the more money the monopolies make. But what if people start generating their own? Solar panels on residential or commercial roofs don’t make a bean for the big boys. They are what’s known as Distributed Energy Resources, DER for short. At the moment, it’s variable in output because the sun doesn’t always shine, so customers still need to stay on the grid. But what is improved battery storage technology or micro turbines could free everyone from grid-dependence? Edison Electric’s report warned that ‘irreparable damages to revenues and growth prospects’ would result.

This revelation will worry the current (sorry) investors, who are likely to shift their money elsewhere. So the big companies will be forced to put their prices up. And what do people do in response to that? Fit more solar panels, of course. Within a decade, we may be paying electricity bills only for the maintenance of the physical wiring network that enables us to share the power we’ve generated. Interesting times.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance is very cheerful about the future of renewable energy. Its most recent report says that renewables will account for half of all generation capacity by 2030. Looks as if Scotland is on the right track, then.