New law helps encourage green energy from the sun

In today's San Diego Union Tribune, Reporter Onell Soto explains how a new bill that will encourage net metering will help San Diego become more energy efficient and more energy independent.

Right now, there are few incentives for consumers to install photovoltaic solar panels in their homes. Which is why in 2006, UCAN called for an energy revolution in San Diego. Net metering is an essential part of the long-term solution to San Diego's energy woes because it compensates homeowners and businesses for the solar energy they generate.

What makes net metering such an elegant part of a comprehensive energy solution it is non-polluting, and delivers power when it is needed the most and the demands on the grid are the highest.

Our fellow consumer group TURN claims that net metering will cause higher rates. We disagree. In fact, net metering is really about an energy concept we support called "distributed generation."

Distributed generation is something the utilities and the big unions have fought for years because distributed energy systems literally take power away from the monopoly utilities. And when we say power, we mean power in the energy sense and in the political sense as well. We predict that as the electricity market evolves toward a distributed generation model, that SDG&E's will gradually migrate away from its current role as power and energy generation provider.  In the next ten years we believe SDG&E's new role will be as an energy management and distribution company.   

The bottom line: Sunshine is a huge natural resource for San Diego's desert economy. Net metering helps deliver on the promise of solar power and provides the possibility of energy independence for the region without reliance on outside power supplies. Net metering rewards homeowners and small businesses for delivering energy to the grid at the very moment demand is at its peak - hot summer and autumn days. 

The alternative solution to distributed energy is the current Soviet Union style centralized monopoly model for energy services, where one large power plant delivers energy to contiguous communities. community. It is a model that is rapidly becoming inefficient, obsolete, and in many ways, tyrannical.