

Spain has found a controversial way to boost solar adoption











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RE: Charging more for Solar
By Keeir on 5/13/2009 3:21:18 PM , Rating: 2
Although I agree changing the whole sale price of a section of the power won't lead to a 1:1 ramp of the price to the consumer, I think your overlooking a few things

#1. "Transmission" costs are likely to increase as a greater percentage of power sources are not controllable in thier variability. One of the best advantages of both Nuclear and Coal as power sources is the low risk assosiated with counting on a plant to produce X power at Y time. Spain may be able to maintain lower "transmission" costs by borrowing stability from France/Italy/etc... but in the long term, I expect thier "transmission" part of the electric bill will also increase due to higher solar usage.

#2. Raising electric prices by 2.5x (your number) will lead to price increases of well... pretty much everything. In the end, Spain residents will likely pay the industrial/commerical sections an additional dollar in higher prices for each dollar thier personal electrical bill raises. (In the US, industry/commerical power usage is slightly larger than residental, and any good company passes 100% additional costs onto consumers often with a 10% upcharge for higher profit margin on the additional marginal costs)

If such as system (7x price and ~40% usage) was used in the United States, where the average household uses around 11,400 kWh of electricity per year, this would result in an additional 3-4+ thosand a year out of people's pockets to pay for...

