Debunking The Myths

Someone should one day write a book or create a website, where all the renewable energy myths get busted. So every time another one gets perpetuated, we could reference the source, instead of trying to debunk them ourselves, over and over again.

And if such a website/book already exists, the “solar customers shifting costs to non-solar ratepayers” myth needs to be added to the list.

Here goes the myth in short – solar energy customers, by consuming their own energy, are avoiding paying for grid maintenance, which means those costs shift to non-solar ratepayers.

The author of this article looks closer at that false claim and provides some great arguments and examples from across the US.

Here is a sneak peek, and a solid debunking example from Maine: “According to the independent consulting firm Crossborder Energy, having solar on the grid in Maine cuts electricity prices for everyone by reducing peak demand on the grid and its associated power plants. The 20 MW currently installed in Maine will save all electricity customers an aggregated $45 million in direct payments alone, not to mention the $17 million in savings thanks to other solar attributes and the estimated $58 million savings from reducing pollution in the state. If the state legislature had passed a clean energy bill that would have increased the state’s solar capacity to 250 MW, the savings balloon to $775 million.”