commondreams | Customers who install solar systems and battery arrays are finding themselves cut off from grid. In the nation's largest state, California, the major utility companies are trying to limit growth. Of rooftop solar panels, that is.
According to reporting by Bloomberg,
the state's three largest utilities—Edison International, PG&E
Corp. and Sempra Energy—are "putting up hurdles" to homeowners who have
installed sun-powered energy systems, especially those with "battery
backups wired to solar panels," in order to slow the spread of what has
become a threat to their dominant business model.
“The utilities clearly see rooftop solar as the next threat,” Ben
Peters, a government affairs analyst at solar company Mainstream Energy
Corp., told Bloomberg. “They’re trying to limit the growth.”
According to Peters, as the business news outlet reports, the dispute
between those with solar arrays and the utility giants "threatens the
state’s $2 billion rooftop solar industry and indicates the depth of
utilities’ concerns about consumers producing their own power. People
with rooftop panels are already buying less electricity, and adding
batteries takes them closer to the day they won’t need to buy from the
local grid at all."
