Credit: Stanford Graduate School of Business

Chuck Jay worked as a coal miner for nearly three decades before he decided to start his own solar panel installation company just outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 2012. He had put panels on his own home a few years before and got hooked by the technology — not to mention the money he saved on his electric bill.

But just as his business was getting off the ground, Jay and a new customer were blindsided by a new charge from Alabama Power, the state utility company. To stay connected to the power grid — allowing households to sell back excess electricity on sunny days or draw power on rainy dark days — the customer would have to pay an extra $25 to $30 a month in fees.

Jay finished the installation, but the new fees have cramped his business. The extra charge eats up nearly all the money his customers would save by going solar. “It changed the dynamic totally of what I was doing,” he says.

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