California is the place to be — if you want to pay for others’ solar power.
“Booming rooftop solar installations in California are bringing an unwelcome surprise to the homes and businesses that don’t have the devices: an extra $1.3 billion added to their annual bills, more than half of that for Pacific Gas & Electric customers.” [SanFran Chronicle]
Mark, in California’s PG&E territory, above 200% of baseline you see 36 cents per KWH and about 300% of baseline you get to 48 cents per KWH. I had a home office with several computers and laser printers in use, thus I had a heavy electric demand. I could not get any relief on the baseline for having a home-based business (even though I eliminated commuting and reduced demands for highways and mass transit). I now live in Washington (state) in an area where electricity is 8.16 cents per KWH, any quantity — thanks to the Columbia River and the Bonneville Power Administration. (There is also no Income tax in Washington state.)
In CA I get charged 14 cents ber kwh for baseline 16cents for 100 – 130% of baseline and 26cents for everything above that. It averages about 2.5 the national average. I have just about everything CFL and Energy star, and still can not do less than 130% of baseline (sorry I don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head and the baseline calc is so convoluted, it is hard to figure.) So we are already paying outrageous amounts. I think the reason the state has set this up is to force us all to get solar power. There is no other way to reduce the costs unless you go medieval and use nothing but candle power.
People elect Democrats to steal their money. I think the US has become a Dumbocracy where the majority of the population in now BELOW AVERAGE compared to the rest of the world. That would help explain why our schools have become massively inferior to the International communities. Some of our teachers would flunk English in Amsterdam!
This is where the greenie’s self-centeredness really shines: those that can afford alternate energy do so on the backs of those who can’t, accellerating the the gap between haves and have nots.
Is there a way to eject a state from the US? California should be a separate country, and just as importantly, have a different currency. One way or another, we’ll all wind up paying for California’s crap.
At least California’s feed-in-tariff, at about the wholesale cost of electricity, is more rational than Australia’s 2X retail (!).
https://junkscience.com/2012/08/05/qld-aus-low-income-earners-burnt-as-cost-of-solar-subsidy-spirals/
44 cents per kWh! Of course, all the fixed cost issues are just as real in Australia.
The medieval church learned that, if you can somehow get the people to feel guilty about something, they will gladly pay everything they have to ease their guilty consciences. People haven’t changed in thousands of years.
Socialism in action: what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine