Financial Equation For Residential Solar Is Changing -- July 26, 2016

From The New York Times:

It was only two years ago that Elroy Holtmann spent about $20,000 on a home solar array to help cover the costs of charging his new electric car. With the savings on his monthly electric bills, he figured the investment would pay for itself in about a dozen years.

But then the utilities regulators changed the equation.

As a result, Pacific Gas & Electric recently did away with the rate schedule chosen by Mr. Holtmann, a retired electrical engineer, and many other solar customers in this part of California. The new schedule will make them pay much more for the electricity they draw from the grid in the evening, while paying those customers less for the excess power their solar panels send back to the grid on sunny summer days.

As a result, Mr. Holtmann’s solar setup may never pay for itself.

“They’ve taken any possibility for payback away,” he said with resignation, looking up at the roof of his 1970s ranch-style house in this suburb a short drive east of Berkeley.

The paradox is playing out around the country. Even as policy makers at the federal and state levels promote clean energy to fight global warming, the economics of electricity can often be at odds with those goals.

Thrust in the middle are utility regulators. Even if they support greening the grid through technology adopters like Mr. Holtmann, the regulators are also responsible for ensuring that the utilities can afford to supply power to the largest number of customers at the most equitable rates. That includes people without the money or inclination to install solar collectors.

Much more at the link.

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Model X, Model S, Model 3, Now Model K (for Kennedy)

From Bloomberg: the fatal Tesla crash on autopilot? Speeding.

The article does not say why the vehicle was speeding (unless I missed it). I would assume self-driving cars "read/interpret" road signs.  [A reader reminds me that Tesla on autopilot "are not allowed" to speed.]

We do know that the truck that the car hit was carrying a load of blueberries to a local farm but we don't know why the car was speeding. We don't even know if the reporter posting the story asked the question. We don't even know if the reporter was aware of safeguards in the Tesla against speeding. But we do know the truck was carrying blueberries. To a farm.

Which, of course, raises another question. Why was the truck carrying blueberries TO a farm. One would think the blueberries would be going to a farmer's market or maybe to a city market. But TO a farm. Enquiring minds want to know.