Reid: Raise cap on rooftop solar limits
By Amber Phillips, Las Vegas Sun
The cap limiting how many homeowners in Nevada can provide solar power to the energy grid is “way too low,” said Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader.
Reid’s comments are the first from a member of Nevada’s congressional delegation on the matter and come as Nevada’s largest rooftop solar companies — SolarCity and Sunrun — lobby state lawmakers to raise the current 3 percent cap.
If the cap is not raised, the rooftop industry will shed thousands of jobs in a state that touts itself as No. 1 per capita for solar jobs, industry lobbyists say.
This issue has nothing to do with electricity.
Any power generated without burning anything is good power.
It is clearly a wonderful thing to get power from the sun, but net metering, (where the solar panel owner gets a little money back by selling any surplus power back to the power company) infuriates the mainstream power companies.
And truly, it can be seen as not quite fair.
After all, the power company still has all the headaches of distribution of power, (getting the electricity to where it is needed). Wires, poles, transformers are expensive to build and maintain.
The answer to this seeming impasse is a negotiation, or some rules where everyone shares in the costs and profits.
With only a single digit cap on the number of homes allowed to have solar panels, it amazes me that some sharp attorney has not assembled a large group of “wanna be” solar panel owners and filled a class action suit demanding inclusion.