

Now You Can Buy Solar Power from Your Neighbor - prostoalex
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3047758/with-this-airbnb-for-energy-now-you-can-buy-solar-power-from-your-neighbor

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chrisBob
As a Massachusetts resident with solar panels I can tell you that this is a
useful service. In this state you do not get paid for the over production and
instead it just accumulates in your account. I currently have a $500 credit
with the electric company and no good way to cash out.

There is a mechanism in place to _give_ someone else your extra credit but
then you need to figure out how to charge them by looking at your bill every
month. There is also a requirement that the person you transfer to must be in
the same "ISO-NE load zone" and I haven't figure out what that means yet. It
probably means that my neighbors are ok, but my co-workers might not be an
option.

I don't know know how they set their rates, but I would be happy to sell
people electricity at 75% of what they pay the power company since I am not
doing anything with my extra as it is.

To answer the power or money question: This is just a money transfer. It is
similar to the way anyone can purchase renewable energy for a 10% premium.
They don't send you different electrons, it just gets paid differently.

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ChrisGranger
You could run BOINC or mine Bitcoin or something similar with your excess
electricity assuming you also have idle computer hardware, at least until
there's a better option for you.

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fiveoak
Not a bad idea, but I thought ASICs basically killed the profitability of
mining on standard computer hardware? Still, if the electricity is free then
at least it's something.

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theseatoms
Why not buy ASICs then?

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edent
This is just... odd! In the UK, the Government pay me (via my energy company)
for every kWh I generate. I also get paid for every unit I export.

Once a quarter (or automatically if I have a smart-meter) I take meter
readings and email them to the Energy Company. A few days later they transfer
the cash to my account.

Why bother with this middleman? What's the use of an inefficient 3rd party?
Energy is fungible. Unless you've actually got a direct wire between your
panels and your neighbour's property, this is just nonsense.

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jonwachob91
Not every region of the world is as green energy progressive as the UK.

In the US, states make their own regulations on energy - and it is reflected
in the state of Florida. FL only has 5 utility companies, but Duke (the
largest utility in the country) and FPL (the 3rd largest in the county)
control most of the state (the other 3 utility companies purchase power from
Duke and FPL, essentially making them the only 2 providers in the state).
FPL's parent company NextEra is the largest supplier of Solar Energy in North
America. Duke is a top 5 provider of solar energy in North America.

Yet it is illegal for me to power my home on solar panels that I buy. If I do
buy the panels, I still have to pay my utility for every kWh I use even if I
didn't get it from the utility (negating any financial benefits).

Two of the top providers of solar energy on the continent control the
utilities in FL and their lobbying is what keeps us from getting any solar
benefits.

OUR NICKNAME IS THE SUNSHINE STATE!!!

Hopefully, companies such as Yeloha can show our legislators and their
constituents the power of home owner solar and it's sharing capacity. They
could provide a lot of data to empower change.

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outworlder
What if you have no contracts with any utility companies whatsoever? Are you
still required to pick one and pay them?

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jonwachob91
We don't get to pick, we have one that services our house and we are required
to use them.

If we don't connect the panels to the grid - they send out inspectors to homes
that are drawing below the norm power and look for panels. If they find panels
or any renewable energy source they call the cops and start a lawsuit.

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nathan_long
Do they actually transfer power between "host" and "partner", or just money?

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athenot
This looks more like a transfer of credits, not of the actual power.

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shiggerino
There is nothing new about the technology or the business model. Maybe it's an
unusual one for Americans, but for everyone else, it's not.

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IkmoIkmo
Hasn't this been covered through the Utilities, already? Most utilities here
allow you to buy different plans, normal electricity, or electricity generated
from renewable sources. At the end of the day it's just a 'accounting trick',
as it's not like the green energy is being routed specifically to you, you get
the same energy, most of it from a coal burning plant, but your payments are
earmarked (in the accounting) to pay for existing or new green energy
projects, and you hope they're audited such that this is actually true (as
opposed to selling 15% of their electricity as 'green' when their green
sources are only 5% and growing slowly).

And this isn't even any different from having your own solar, unless you're in
a remote location unconnected to the grid and uninterested in interconnecting
to the grid. Most people who have solar simply get two energy meters. One of
your power being generated and going to the grid (not to your own home), and
one of power from the grid going into your home. It's pretty rare that you
actually use the energy that the panels on your roof generate. Which means
that whether those panels are on your own roof, or on the other side of the
planet, doesn't really make any difference as long as they cost the same and
have the same sun conditions. Except of course for the fact your home rises in
value with panels on them because panels are essentially a small currency
printer that takes sunlight as its ink, which has value.

Which brings me to the weirdness of this project. People with roofs get free
panels and some free electricity. And people without roofs have to pay for
that, which is obviously going to be quite expensive. Residential solar is
already 2x, almost 3x as expensive as industrial solar projects, plus solar is
still more expensive than your utility in the first place, and then you have
to pay for extra panels for someone else's energy bill, plus the panels you do
pay for aren't owned by you and don't add value to your home, and of course
the energy of the panels doesn't even go directly to you, or hell even
directly to the person whose house's panels you're paying for. I don't see why
this would be a better idea than buying solar credits, shares in an industrial
solar farm or green energy from your utility. It sounds like a waste of money
to me, magnifying the very concern that is keeping solar from taking over the
energy market.

For example that's what vandebron.nl does here in the Netherlands. They
essentially sell green energy credits (I call them credits not because it's
not green energy, but because it's delivered to the grid in general, and not
to them specifically) to consumers by facilitating the financial link between
independent producers (e.g. a farmer who has a wind turbine and who can sell
to 600 households) and the consumer.

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LakeShoreDrive1
More green energy is being produced as a result of this project. How is that a
bad thing or waste of money? People save a little money and help create clean
energy. More companies like Yeloha, the better.

The main issue with your first point is that big utilities in the states lack
incentive to push for renewables. So yes, all of the actual power will still
come from the grid but that's how the entire industry is structured. Federal
and state incentives that help make commercial and residential solar
affordable demand that energy flow onto the grid. This company sounds like
they've got a nice angle on increasing the adoption of solar and there's
nothing wrong about that.

