Warren Buffet vs Elon Musk - Battling Billionaires Over The Future Of Solar Energy
Nevada has 335 days of clear, bright sunshine per year making it an ideal place to have solar powered roof installations. It offers some of the best conditions to generate solar power in the country.
In the late nineties, Nevada set up a policy called net metering. Net metering meant that homeowners who put up solar arrays could sell surplus power back into the grid.
Someone who installed a solar array on their roo top could sell the surplus power they put back into the grid to their neighbors and offset their power bill. In other words, they would get cheaper electric bills.
A typical homeowner with an average electric bill of $330 per month would see their bill reduced to around $10 per month.
People who took part in the program were encouraged to install solar arrays on their rooftops and were happy to be helping the environment while saving money at the same time.
The future of solar was so sunny in Nevada that in 2014 Solar City, Americas largest manufacturer and leaser of solar panels was welcomed into Nevada. They removed the upfront cost of going solar and started leasing solar panels to homeowners with zero down payments.
Many homeowners jumped at the chance immediately. Soon 17,000 homeowners were generating power. By coming in and basically flooding the market with no upfront costs lease systems, Solar City and the State of Nevada woke up a sleeping dragon, encouraging homeowners to make the switch to solar.
People were led to believe this project would reduce their electric bill permanently.
In late December, Nevada's public utilities commission decided that solar customers were mooching. They were not paying their fair share to maintain the grid and Nevada Energy should charge them more. If the current plan stands a homeowner that switched to solar in Nevada will pay more for electricity for the next 30 years then if they had not made the switch to solar.
Nevada can buy power cheaper than from NV Energy than the rates offered by homeowners with solar rooftops.
Under the previous incentive program, NV Energy paid customers 11 cents per kilowatt-hour for excess electricity—the amount it typically charges residential customers for power. But Buffet has said NV Energy could buy power from large-scale solar plants for as little as 4.5 cents per kWh. credit
Solar City quickly decided that doing business in Nevada no longer made sense.
This isn't just a sideshow in the desert, it's a proxy war. You see, Nevada Energy is part of Warren Buffet's business empire and Elon Musk is behind Solar City and it looked like Buffet's company had just secured a victory.
Hundreds of homeowners came out in droves to protest the rate changes by the public utilities commission. and some unusual collaborators like actor Mark Ruffalo turned out to protest.
I think there's a much larger issue here that individual homes generating solar energy, an issue larger than Nevada.
If monopolistic energy companies owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the fund owned by Warren Buffet, can keep their control and destroy solar energy innovations in Nevada, that this will set the precedent that they will take to other states across the country to kill the competition that is solar power.
If this ruling stands the way it stands now it will effectively kill all new solar rooftop installations in Nevada.
The thousands of people caught in the crosshairs of these billionaires are realizing that by trying to do the right thing they may have made the wrong decision. People have spent so much money to build these solar arrays on the premise that it is the right thing to do and will save them money only to find the rules have been changed to benefit corporations and not them.
The environment has been left completely out of the equation and it is the environment that gains with all these rooftop solar installations.
Since the rally, Nevada has suggested grandfathering in existing contracts, but the rate changes are still in place making it unfavorable for rooftop solar.
It's not clear which billionaire will triumph but what happens in Nevada may just set the course for the rest of the country.
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There's a lot of talk here in the UK as well on how good renewable sources are and how we all should do our bit. Meanwhile the same people at the top we advocate it dont want to invest in renewable energy... I dont understand that.
It seems that third world countries are going to be at the forefront of these kinds of innovations much like with cryptocurrencies. Countries with large investments in the status quo have less incentives to adopt new systems and are only interested in solutions that can be monopolized.
exactly... the option is there in the developing world to put up solar grids where there currently is no grid.
I've been to many places that are supposedly third-world and in many cases, they are embracing new technology at a faster rate than the developed world. I guess the mother of invention is drawn to where she's needed the most.
well put... and she typically doesn't find any incumbent baggage getting in the way there
I know some people that live in Las Vegas and every month they are shocked at high their electric bill is... Lower income people can't even turn on their air-conditioners if they want to eat... It's all about the money!
what do you do with your grandmother's pacemaker at night when the sun is gone?
The energy is stored in a battery for use at night just like it is in a pacemaker. Click the link below in "related posts" and read the article about Powerwall 2
peak consumption happens by night. The issue with solar is that it you cannot scale if there is a sudden high demand when the production is down. The moment it produces the most is when people less need it. To top it off, the production of batteries is quite a polluting enterprise and has a limited shelf life. All things being equal, I would rather have a steady source such as hydro power where all you need to do is open the spigot.
If all the production is made at home, it may work if you are living in a place where there is a lot of sun. But where I live, it's a little unpractical.
Hydo is the cheapest form of power generation by far and solar is more suited to certain areas for sure.
Peak hours are not at night though as many people believe. Peak energy consumption is during the day time.
I guess is geographically dependent. Whenever everyone get's home and turn on the lights and the heating (it dark at 4pm here), that's our peak hours over here in QC.
Thermo energética is good and hho to in that condition
We are living in a world controlled by the energy companies all that of Tokyo conference about climate change is the biggest scam , is only a show and a big 💩, to give hope to the people we are going in a good dirección but the realiti is the money still talking and most of the countries have a sun tax like in Spain
I'm pretty excited about the introduction of Musk's solar roof tiles. Living 6 miles off the paved roads in the Montana highlands, I am building off grid (as there is no grid this far up. With the combination of the solar city wall battery and tiles - I will be net zero for electricity consumption.
It looks like a winning combination. I did a post about the roof tiles and powerwall in a related post that you can read by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.
Fascinating to see the way competition plays out in a "free market." Personally, I think Elon Musk could very well be the leader humanity needs in this time of change. He has already spearheaded so many important advancements and will no doubt continue as long as he is able. I've really grown to like and respect the guy.
The next go to be water