Rendering of the Kanoya Osaki Solar Hills Solar Power Plant in Japan
Credit: Kyocera
Researchers project that solar power will become cheaper than conventional, fossil fueled electric generating sources by 2020. (The researchers do not say that directly, but their numbers do.)
But the news gets even worse for incumbent utilities. By 2030, solar-plus-storage could threaten the economic relevance of their distribution grids by making less necessary the connection with the local electric utility. (emphasis added)
In short, more efficient solar panels combined with lower cost battery storage will threaten the economic viability of the entire electric utility distribution grid by 2030. Stated another way, those supposedly low risk, high yielding distribution utilities like Con Ed, for example, may at some point in the not-too-distant future become high risk and no yield equities if this thesis plays out.
If consumers can economically produce, store, and swap electrical energy, they will not need the power grid. They can replicate it with other technologies and at lower costs. That would strand utility assets on a […]
I believe this is going to change how we get our electricity, but am concerned that the PUC’s are deeply in the pockets of the electric utility providers. I imagine they will continue to argue that only rich people can afford solar, so we need to protect the underprivileged by charging a tax on solar. I’m also concerned that the reduction in cost for solar is directly related to China’s ramped up production of solar panels. I would hate to look back and find out that our solar revolution was directly related to the same slave type labor that we see related to the smart phone revolution. I wonder if these are concerns you share?