Despite a sunny climate, Alabama ranks 49th among U.S. states in residential solar installations—lower than Alaska. Advocates say the steep solar fee is part of the reason why.
Yeah, tax the sun you fucking cunts. That’s the way.
Marjorie Taylor Green country…clay of the earth…you know…
… Morons.
The Epstein party needs you depended on foreign oil.
I live here, and what this article doesn’t tell you (but does allude to) is that Alabama Power is not just greedy, but majorly corrupt. In many parts of the state it is the only electricity provider, and in recent months (2 years ish maybe, but it’s escalated drastically in the last year), they have repeatedly price gouged and straight up scammed their customers.
There are many reports of homes with power connected but breakers disabled (like vacation homes, unused rentals, etc.) that are racking up power bills of $500/mo. with 0 tenants.
Unfortunately for many citizens, including myself, it is nearly inescapable unless you have the actual agency to live off grid.
Also, to the point of the actual article, they can’t stop you from using your own power system. It’s only a problem if you connect a hybrid power inverter to the grid on your primary home circuit, which, while ideal yes, is still so expensive that it’s majorly unaffordable for the average Alabamian. Even a bit of supplementation via your own storage system would be great, but most citizens are going to buy panels from a US-based company, and it’s hard to get less than $1.50 per Watt, if not worse. Not to mention the cost of batteries.
Oh no way, energy companies are corrupt and capitalism sucks? Who could’ve foreseen this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_rent
(sorry I’m not being snide at you, just at the topic in general, that’s good info you shared I read it as I wanted experiences from locals)
No offense taken, I’m right there with you.
That’s some bullshit.
Alabamans should just install their own solar and not tell the state government about it. It’s not like we have competent governance anymore in the USA, so they probably won’t figure it out.
I think they’re allowed to, but just can’t hook it up to the grid. The Alabama Power fee looks to me like it applies only to generation capacity that is actually connected to the grid, under an interconnection agreement with the utility.
I can imagine a completely separate circuit, not at all connected to the rest of the electrical system, that only powers things that don’t need grid backup: EV chargers, HVAC equipment, other heating or cooling equipment, etc. You’d probably want a decent amount of battery backup, though, to make the best use of that equipment.
Or you can pull circuits out of the main breaker onto a non grid connected breaker panel and run that off of solar/battery. I’d start with the living room and bedrooms since they don’t constantly use electricity, and are easier to tell if the power is out (if the off grid battery is dead)
Campers, which tend to have seperate ac/dc circuts almost alwayd have dc for the ceiling lights, so thats that i was aiming for myself.
