Solar users could trade power for cash
TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: It can be a small fortune to install solar panels on your house.
It takes years to pay that money back. So now imagine if the utilities had to buy any extra power you generated. Congress is tackling that option later today. And from the Sustainability Desk, here’s Marketplace’s Jennifer Collins.
Jennifer Collins: Billi-Jo Swanson’s solar panels generate more than enough power for her house and her stable of horses. The extra energy goes back to San Diego Gas and Electric for free.
Billi-Jo Swanson: SDG is making out, like, big.
Swanson would rather she made out big.
Jon Wellinghoff is the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission:
Jon Wellinghoff: I absolutely think she should be paid at the full retail rate.
A Senate committee is considering the idea today. Wellinghoff says enough people like Swanson and utilities wouldn’t have to build more big conventional plants. States like Washington, California and Maine might require utilities to pay for excess power.
Major utilities are against that. For now, the federal government backs the same incentives it always has.
Wellinghoff: Congress’s best vehicle is tax credits.
Or, Wellinghoff says, low-interest loans to encourage more people to buy alternative energy systems.
I’m Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.
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