Make solar panel costs more transparent, consumer watchdog says
1 week, 2 days ago

Make solar panel costs more transparent, consumer watchdog says

Dutch News  

Consumer rights watchdog Consumentenbond has called for solar energy suppliers to be more transparent about the cost of sending unused power back to the grid. Homeowners’ costs have increased since the government abolished a concession that allowed them to sell their unused energy back to the supplier, but the rates that companies charge under the new rules vary widely. Customers have seen the cost of an annual contract increase by an average of 38% since last July, the consumers’ association said. The Consumentenbond wants companies to harmonise prices by using a uniform calculation method, making it easier for potential customers to compare tariffs, as they can for gas and electricity.

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History of this topic

Homes with solar panels are being charged more for excess electricity in new contracts
1 week, 6 days ago

Homes with solar panels are being charged more for excess electricity in new contracts

NL Times  

Households with solar panels that are agreeing a new energy contract this week will have to pay more to return electricity to the electricity grid. The ACM also calculated that the prices for new permanent contracts for electricity and gas rose by 2.5 percent in March. The regulator has also noted that 11 energy suppliers are charging households with solar …

Letters to the Editor: Financial incentives are the best way to motivate less-wealthy homeowners to go solar
2 weeks, 1 day ago

Letters to the Editor: Financial incentives are the best way to motivate less-wealthy homeowners to go solar

LA Times  

To the editor: I agree with columnist Sammy Roth that the debate regarding net metering for legacy rooftop solar is unnecessary. At least Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric already effectively bill some customers for grid use via “demand charges” in some electricity tariff schedules. A fair solution would seem simple: Charge all customers, including residential, in two …

Green electricity costs a bundle
2 months, 3 weeks ago

Green electricity costs a bundle

Live Mint  

As nations use more and more supposedly cheap solar and wind power, a strange thing happens: Our power bills get more expensive. The International Energy Agency’s latest data on solar and wind power generation costs and consumption across nearly 70 countries shows a clear correlation between more solar and wind and higher average household and industry energy prices. At least …

Solar panel owners face new payment system from 2027
4 months, 1 week ago

Solar panel owners face new payment system from 2027

Dutch News  

As expected, MPs have voted in favour of ending the way in which households with solar panels are paid for the excess electricity they produce and feed back into the grid from January 2027. “We can now focus on the future and work towards encouraging people to use more of the electricity that they produce,” said Nold Jaeger, a spokesman …

Consumer authority looks again at fees for solar panel owners
7 months, 1 week ago

Consumer authority looks again at fees for solar panel owners

Dutch News  

The Dutch consumers authority ACM says it is again looking at the fees which solar panel owners have to pay to deliver excess electricity back to the national grid. The ACM earlier looked into the fees charged by the four biggest energy suppliers and concluded that they were not unreasonable, given the costs that the companies make. The previous government …

Households could get solar panel subscription under new government trial
1 year, 2 months ago

Households could get solar panel subscription under new government trial

The Telegraph  

Households could install solar panels on a subscription model as part of a trial backed by the Government to encourage the uptake of green technology. Among them is Sunsave, a London-based company, that will receive £2 million funding to trial a scheme offering households solar panels for a monthly payment, similar to a mobile phone, rather than an upfront sum. …

California slashed rooftop solar payments. Now opponents want a rehearing
2 years, 2 months ago

California slashed rooftop solar payments. Now opponents want a rehearing

LA Times  

The California Public Utilities Commission in December 2022 made the first changes since 2016 to incentives for rooftop solar customers in California. A trio of environmental groups wants the California Public Utilities Commission to upend last month’s decision that overhauled the rules for Californians who install rooftop solar on their homes and businesses, reducing payments to new solar customers for …

Editorial: The new plan to slash rooftop solar incentives is better — but still too extreme
2 years, 4 months ago

Editorial: The new plan to slash rooftop solar incentives is better — but still too extreme

LA Times  

Nearly a year after announcing a plan to gut California’s successful rooftop solar incentive program, state regulators have released a revised version that does away with some of the most extreme provisions pushed by the state’s big monopoly utility companies. Yes, the new plan, released earlier this month, removes a planned “grid participation charge” that would hit typical residential customers …

Eneco slashing rate paid for excess solar panel energy
2 years, 7 months ago

Eneco slashing rate paid for excess solar panel energy

NL Times  

Eneco is cutting the compensation for solar panel owners that feed electricity back into the power grid. According to AD, the compensation cut means that solar panel owners with an expensive energy contract will get hundreds of euros less per year for their excess energy. The energy company used the regular electricity rate for the feed-in fee in the past …

Fears proposal to charge households with solar panels to export electricity will kill demand for solar energy
3 years, 10 months ago

Fears proposal to charge households with solar panels to export electricity will kill demand for solar energy

ABC  

An energy expert has hit out at a new proposal to charge solar panel users for exporting their excess electricity, labelling it a "sun tax" and arguing it will cost solar households more than is being estimated by the independent statutory body pushing the changes. Key points: For years, solar panel owners have been able to sell their surplus energy …

California utilities propose paying less to homeowners who install rooftop solar
4 years ago

California utilities propose paying less to homeowners who install rooftop solar

LA Times  

A 25-year-old incentive program that pays residents for their excess clean power has led to more than 1 million installing solar panels on their homes. California’s three big investor-owned utilities proposed changes to the state’s rooftop-solar program that would lead to new connection charges and lower compensation for customers who install panels on their homes. “Their need to increase profits …

The mismatch between tariffs and costs in the Indian solar sector
6 years, 8 months ago

The mismatch between tariffs and costs in the Indian solar sector

Live Mint  

Auctions are aimed at bringing out the most competitive bids. Now we have revised that to a 34% drop, to an end-2018 global average of 24.4 U.S. cents per watt,” Pietro Radoia, senior solar analyst, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in a statement. “In addition, they are also uncertain about the proposed safeguard duties that could be slapped on Chinese …

Want to Reduce Electricity Bills by 70% This Summer? Go Solar
6 years, 9 months ago

Want to Reduce Electricity Bills by 70% This Summer? Go Solar

The Quint  

While this will incentivise people to move to rooftop solar, it also highlights some problems in the power industry in the country. “Why should already burdened discoms bear the cost of subsidising customers who produce excess power through solar?” asks Kanika Chawla from the Council of Energy Environment and Water. Adding that even though the burden is purely transactional, it …

Legislature approves bill curtailing solar panel incentives
7 years, 11 months ago

Legislature approves bill curtailing solar panel incentives

Associated Press  

INDIANAPOLIS — A bill pushed by Indiana’s investor-owned utilities that would eliminate much of the financial incentive available to those who install solar panels is headed to Gov. They are promoting an alternative to installing home solar panels called “community solar” that involves customers agreeing to buy or lease panels from the utilities on large panel farms. Hershman’s bill would …

Solar power: Bill shock looms as lucrative tariffs roll back, advocates warn
8 years, 8 months ago

Solar power: Bill shock looms as lucrative tariffs roll back, advocates warn

ABC  

Thousands of Australians will be hit by electricity bill shock of about $1,500 when generous solar feed-in tariffs are rolled back in coming months, consumer advocates have warned. Key points: Report suggests 146,000 NSW customers will be hardest hit Some consumers could be as much as $4,000 a year worse off Consumer advocates want sweeping changes to the national energy …

California solar owners face new fees, utilities say costs should be higher
9 years, 1 month ago

California solar owners face new fees, utilities say costs should be higher

LA Times  

States such as California, Arizona and Nevada have moved to increase fees on homeowners and businesses with solar panels. Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric had pressed the commission to charge solar owners hefty fees that the solar industry said would crush their business. “Our decision today is a big step forward,” said …

Solar panel owners not helped by energy providers: regulators
9 years, 11 months ago

Solar panel owners not helped by energy providers: regulators

NL Times  

Many energy suppliers provide consumers with solar panels insufficient information about feed-in pricing and the amount they can earn from pumping the power they generate back into the national network, the Consumers and Markets Authority stated on Friday. “Providers should inform their consumers sufficiently, so that they can compare and check the available offers," ACM board member Anna Vegter said. …

Electricity pricing too vague: regulators
10 years, 7 months ago

Electricity pricing too vague: regulators

NL Times  

The Consumer and Market Authority states that it is too difficult for consumers to compare and make sense of competing energy prices because of the vague and inconsistent manner in which tariffs are promoted, Z24 reports. Many consumers have difficulty comparing tariffs because suppliers use different terms on their bills and receipts, the Authority argues. According to Z24, the controller …

Solar power picking up in Ongole
10 years, 11 months ago

Solar power picking up in Ongole

The Hindu  

Vexed with power cut every day, more and more people are to shifting to solar power systems, particularly during the summer. We do not know when it comes and when it goes off,” says a housewife, who proudly showed the newly-acquired solar power system that included battery, solar module and inverter. “To be on the safe side, we have put …

Power charges: unfair advantage to ultra rich
11 years, 9 months ago

Power charges: unfair advantage to ultra rich

The Hindu  

Power charges might have become a luxury component in the monthly budgets of poor, middle and upper middle class consumers alike. But the power officials have been covertly kinder towards the ultra rich in fixing the slabs, even while increasing the tariff rates in each slab exponentially for services exceeding 200 units of monthly consumption. For example, a multi-millionaire industrialist …

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