04/06/2023
There are many spring happenings on the farm including 16 new lambs thanks to our Grand Champion Merino ram, Mercury. We are glad none of them are bottle babies and the mamas did a great job bonding in the lamb jugs. We also started the process to expand our sustainabilty with a solar upgrade for future expanded energy use on the farm. I included the deets below, FYI in case anyone wants to take advantage before the cost goes up next week.
Happy and Hoppy Spring from QT Farm!
🐑❤️🐑💚🌷💚⛅️🌞⛅️
We are (eventually) adding a fourth solar array (20 more panels) and our solar upgrade contract has been finalized and filed with PG&E before the April 14th deadline. After April 14, net metering is reduced by 75% for all new and upgraded solar systems!!!! Our 100% net metering is now assured as the upgrade is grandfathered into the current rate! Now we have two years to complete the addition.
Our solar system has been amazing since we installed it in 2017, but we wanted to increase the size to cover future energy needs including electric cars. If you are thinking about upgrading or going solar, do not wait! After April 14th the new CPUC rules for Net Metering go into effect and rather than getting full value for each kilowatt produced or used, you will only get 25%!!
Net metering was created in the 90s as an incentive to add solar to homes and businesses, which inturn fed power to the grid and reduced the need for adding more fossil fuel or nuclear power plants as demand grows. Last December the CPUC voted to reduce net metering by 75%. The added cost of installing expensive batteries for new or updated systems is now the incentive since net metering is essentially eliminated. That means you have to invest in a solar system AND expensive battery storage to net the same effect as the current net metering rate.
CPUC delivered PG&E a bailout and a blow to green energy when five people drastically reduced net metering by 75% despite 120,000 signatures and public comment opposing the new 3.0 tariff change. This must not be sexy or political enough though because you can’t seem to find much press about the new solar tariff taking effect next Friday. The mega spin news release from the CPUC (in comments) is truly disgusting and literally twists the facts completely in the favor of eliminating net metering – kudos to the soulless spin doctor minion – this is what is really happening IRL with net metering 3.0:
Our system produces electricity during the day and whatever amount we don’t use goes back into the grid for PG&E to provide power to other users who don’t have solar. We become energy producers during the day, but at night when the panels aren’t producing electricity, we are energy users and have to take power back from the grid for use until the daylight (sun or clouds) returns. With 100% net metering, at the end of the year PG&E does a true-up bill that takes all the energy we produce and “feed” to the grid during the daylight and subtracts all the energy we use when the sun is down and we pay the difference. Before solar we have had close to $1000 months during peak seasons, but with the solar net metering true-up, we have paid as little as $10 a month on average because we invested in a large enough solar system so all our energy needs are met with our actual solar panels. We don’t need to rely on batteries because the grid is fine where we live and the few times a year it goes out is not worth the huge ADDITIONAL investment for battery storage (our camping generator is fine and we haven’t actually needed to use the generator to save food for years where we live).
When the new net metering 3.0 change goes into effect next week, comparing to the current 2.0, we would have only gotten credited 25% of the actual value of the energy we produce and feed to the grid during the day, but would have been charged the remaining 75% of the energy we used at night, which of course is peak time so higher tier rates. With that new calculation, the cost savings of solar is drastically reduced and the ROI takes much longer for new systems.
Any new or upgraded solar owners after April 14 will pay more for their energy. PG&E rates have been steadily rising for ratepayers – not even the spin doctor went so far as to say this new change will reduce your rising PG&E bill, because it won’t, you will just share the PG&E infrastructure burden with new solar producers who don’t also buy batteries after next week. A big reason to invest in solar is so you don't have to pay the higher (profit) tier prices for your power needs. The higher tier rates are what create more profit for PG&E.
If you have a large energy and gas-guzzling home you are paying for the most expensive power at the higher tiers if you buy it all from PG&E. In the past for-profit PG&E paid that profit out to their shareholders instead of investing in infrastructure and improvements. Now that they have been found criminally liable for favoring shareholders over safe and effective energy delivery, they are under court order to uphold the business model they should have always followed – maintain infrastructure to provide energy and gas effectively and safely, without killing people, burning forests and destroying towns.
