Solar Power

When someone installs solar panels, they use less power from the grid, meaning they spend less money on electricity. power companies are saying that when someone leaves the grid, it increases the price of electricity for those who stay on the grid. Well, doesn't that assume a fixed revenue?

This article takes the price hike to be a given:

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/solar-power-in-arizona-aps-in-fight-with-rooftop-solar-firms-over-rates




From page 2:
"She said utilities are worried about a vicious cycle -- more rooftop solar panels means they have to raise other users' prices, which drives even more people to solar. She also said the installations are more common in affluent areas, shifting costs to poorer customers."

For the first point, I have to say that there is nothing vicious about the cycle. But,if the price hike occurs, the second point is a genuine problem , since some people don't have the cash to install solar panels. So, what is necessary for everyone to benefit from the use of solar panels is free installation.

Alright, maybe not EVERYONE is going to benefit from that, or, at least, there will be some people, for example, power company employees, who will complain, even if the environmental impacts are good for them. But what if the rich people who can afford solar panels today do not reap the benefits of net metering. What if instead, they just get to save on the lower consumption of power company provided electricity due to their personal collection. Well, who would get the cash from selling the extra solar energy  to the power companies? Well, I propose that the money goes to installation of solar panels on the homes of people who cannot afford them. So power companies will be buying the products that are going to render their current product useless. But they would also, as a part of the deal, earn stock in the solar companies with which they ally. That way, power companies will willingly shut down their polluting power stations in favour of a predominantly localized and environmentally friendly energy solution, in which they have financial interest.

This vicious cycle of increased solar panel usage making solar panel usage increasingly popular sounds to me as good as cold fusion or any other perpetual energy solution.

Anyway, I think that the situation is a bit more complicated than I have portrayed it. Solar panel users do not generally leave the grid. Actually, in some situations they don't even use the energy from the solar panels on their roofs. They sell it all to the power company. Further, solar panels panels feed the grid at night. But in Arizona, AC must use more energy during the day.