A recent Time News article titled “Grid Politics” argues that the United States is in the middle of a solar revolution. It points out that solar installations in the US have increased “more than 1000% during President Barack Obama’s first term” and have “contributed nearly half the new power capacity added to the grid in the first quarter of this year.” The reason for this sudden proliferation has been the drastic decrease in the cost of solar panels, almost 80% since 2009, according to the article. Cost of Solar, an online resource for homeowners, predicts that the cost of installing solar panels will only continue to fall in future years as the efficiency of solar panels increases and the size of solar cells decreases. As this movement continues to grow in the foreseeable future, the US will be able to successfully reduce its dependence on deleterious fossil fuels.
But not everybody is happy with this sudden solar energy movement. Public utilities, who provide electricity to customers, are the ones feeling the pernicious effects of the movement. As utilities begin to lose more customers to solar energy, they are losing a significant amount of revenue. On top of that, customers are able to sell their surplus solar energy back to utilities, further decreasing the utilities’ profits. A recent New York Times article titled “On Rooftops, a Rival for Utilities” reports that the state of California, which has seen an unprecedented 160% rise in solar panel installations since 2010, estimates that they will lose almost $1.4 billion dollars this year. If that cost was distributed evenly among the citizens of California, each citizen would have to pay an extra $185 a year for their electricity.
It’s reasonable to surmise that in future years, citizens will see installing their own solar panels as a more economical option than obtaining electricity from utilities. And unless public utilities find new ways to do business, they may end up defunct.
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