> In many cases solar is really close to a no brainier. Which is why Florida Utility's have tried so hard to block residential adoption.

This is actually turning into a hollow victory for Florida utilities. To bring people up to speed, Florida outlawed homeowner PPAs [1] (which locks out firms like Solar City, who install the panels and sell you power; no out of pocket cost for you, and you get solar immediately).

With the rapid decrease in panel costs, and the uptick in firms who are providing extremely cheap (or even zero percent loans in some programs!) financing for solar, Solar City (and other installers) are moving towards a financing model, which kills Florida's efforts to stop the spread of distributed rooftop solar.

Disclaimer: I did some volunteer work for the non-profit who attempted to fight utility legislation in this space [2].

[1] http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2015/jan/16/flo...

[2] http://www.flsolarchoice.org/

The accelerating payments in the PPAs might not be so great if electric prices drop due to solar (in the example below they go up 2.9% per year).

https://www.solarcity.com/sites/default/files/sc-contract-re...

Being responsible for the full 20 year term is also a somewhat onerous financial agreement.

> Being responsible for the full 20 year term is also a somewhat onerous financial agreement.

I don't think so. Is it wrong to be responsible for a car when you lease it? Different asset, different terms.

A car is usually a much shorter lease with much better liquidity. There is a robust market for transferring a vehicle lease, the PPA is as likely to derail a sale of the house as anything else.

Usually, it's a more complicated issue, something like: "Historically, grid maintenance costs are amortized over electricity consumption, but when some people become net contributors, that breaks the model, since usage isn't high enough to pay for maintenance."

Of course, the correct solution isn't to compound one perverse incentive (out-of-sync fixed vs variable pricing) with another (ban on solar or refusal to buy); it's to change to a system of decoupled maintenance and power pricing.

The concern runs deeper than this. You can go off grid with solar for minimal additional costs, so they fear people will simply disconnect from the grid. Couple this with for profit electric company's and bribing/lobbying is the 'solution'.