Rooftop solar sounds like the reasonable version of solar power. Panels on your own roof, no farmland paved over, lower bills for everyone. Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken explains why the grid-connected version doesn’t work that way.
Under net metering, utilities are typically required to buy rooftop solar power at retail rates instead of wholesale, so that electricity costs far more than power from an existing plant. Everyone else on the grid covers the difference. Solar owners also skip much of the grid maintenance cost and the expense of the backup generation that has to stay available for when the sun goes down.
Then there’s the federal tax credit covering about a third of the install. Add it up and you get a subsidy flowing from people who can’t afford solar panels to people who can.
Going fully off grid with your own batteries is a different conversation. Asking your neighbors to fund your roof is not.
Learn more at EnergyAtAGlance.com.
Linnea Lueken is a Research Fellow with the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy.
