Author Topic: Newbie and net metering  (Read 2655 times)

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Sparky_Guy

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Newbie and net metering
« on: September 12, 2016, 02:34:45 PM »
Hi folks, I am a newbie who is passionate about solar, wind and passive house construction.  I am also an entrepreneur who has been brainstorming about the green energy industry.  I think I have read all the net metering posts on the site.  That said has anyone figured out a way to feed a lot more energy back to the grid from homebrew windmills (cheap to construct) as a way to make income?  As I understand it most utilities don't want you to produce more than 110% of your energy needs for your house (that has a history of being tied to the grid)….  That said what if there is no house, or no house YET, or a bunch of small homes, or a property that is being planned to be developed with many individual homes, can you tie in with the utility and sell energy back in those scenarios?  Is there an amount of power fed back to the grid the raises eyebrows?  I am not a big fan of mountains of paperwork some on this forum have said is required for larger installations (commercial power).  Is doing more smaller ones, spread out more feasible?  If feeding back to the grid is not an easy path, how about if you can find a local business that agrees to buy the power does that change things?  Is this a fool's errand as the power companies have stacked the deck against the little guys so this cannot be done?  Thanks for any help answering the questions.       

Bruce S

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Re: Newbie and net metering
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2016, 02:43:51 PM »
Since you started off asking multiple questions, I thought it best to move your questions into their own topic.
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Bruce S
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dnix71

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Re: Newbie and net metering
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2016, 08:18:09 PM »
Conservation pays now, with little or no paperwork or legal issues. The people that run the grid live in a different world. They have to keep the grid up 24/7/365 or their phones light up asking why. The government on all levels has their hand in the utility's pocket (taxes are easy money).

Even if you join or start a co-op, the grid isn't a hobby or a casual 2nd job.

If your electric bill is too high, do an energy survey to see where it's going and work from there.

george65

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Re: Newbie and net metering
« Reply #3 on: September 13, 2016, 11:17:48 AM »
The research I have done leads me to believe that pretty much around the first world anyway, the only way to make money from the grid is be the grid.
I have read of some new enterprises where people develop an estate, be it homes or Businesses/ factorys and supply the power to the consumers themselves.  They can make their own power say with solar, wind, Micro hydro or whatever and buy any shortfall from the grid.
This way they can get full retail price for the power they provide.

Obviously this is far from a tiddly winks/ hobby type undertaking but it's far and away the best return on investment.

Pretty much everywhere I have read of, the power companies pay you like 6 C a kwh for what you generate and feed back and charge you 25-40C for what you buy off them.
A very fair and equitable arrangement.... If you are the power company. 

It's also another reason why I believe all this green save the planet crap big business and Gubbermints promote is a load of crock.  It's all good and well while they are making money but the second saving the planet eats any of their revenue, Nope, forget it!
If it were really about all the green ideals you would get back what you put in at the same rate to encourage renewable energy.
But there is no money in that so they pay lip service to it while ripping you off completely.

I have no problem what so ever with using the grid as a battery.  I have an analogue meter so what I put in spins the meter back at the same rate as what I use.  I pay a daily Connection fee so as far as I'm concerned I'm paying for the line maintenance etc anyway. Pretty damn sure feeding the power the other way puts no extra stress or wear and tear on the lines or poles not anything else.  As no one else round me has solar or anything else, I doubt the power backfed goes any further than 2 houses away anyhow.

I think the pricing tarrifs in 5 years time may be a bit different.  Once the home batteries become more affordable and people start taking them up and having near zero power consumption, I'll bet they will do a big turn around. Wouldn't surprise me a bit to see an even cost/ payment system then.
 

DamonHD

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Re: Newbie and net metering
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2016, 12:20:32 PM »
IMHO you are sailing close to politics and that is not a good pot to stir.

As it happens I am thoroughly in favour of renewables on and off the grid, and own/operate a bunch, but I don't think that net metering is sensible since a whole bunch of the retail price has nothing to do with the price of the underlying energy, nor its value, nor is that fixed throughout the day.

Further, we're getting to territory where we have to consider not even always running renewables first in the merit order or guaranteeing to take off or pay for production.  Not because I want to burn fossil fuels, but because I think that we should possibly drastically OVER build renewables and thus accept that quite a lot of the time some to all of its potential generation will have to be discarded.

Anyhow, I maybe misread you, but please less "crap" and attribution of bad motives to various entities please.  Life is too short and this is not the right forum.

Rgds

Damon
« Last Edit: September 13, 2016, 12:24:35 PM by DamonHD »
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