Re:In Silicon Valley Now, It’s Almost Always Winner Takes All
by afarrell on Wednesday December 30, 2015 @06:39PM
(#10815151)
What does energy generation have to do with the monopoly power of the folks who own the wires, buy from the bulk electricity market, and sell to consumers?
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Re:In Silicon Valley Now, It’s Almost Always Winner Takes All
by beambot on Wednesday December 30, 2015 @08:12PM
(#10815536)
When customers can go 100% off-grid using rooftop solar and in-home storage, it bypasses and obviates the utility's monopoly on bulk generation and transport.
This actually causes a lot of issues, since the long-term fixed costs for the utility get spread across fewer paying customers. You're starting to see this problem in locales with heavy solar penetration (eg. Hawaii).