Solar Customers Fuming Over Proposed Fee

[Baack]

DENVER -- Solar energy customers are worried a new fee proposed by Xcel Energy would punish new customers for getting solar panels.

The monthly fee, which would pay for distribution and transmission of energy, would go into effect in April 2010 and would have to be paid to Xcel, regardless of whether the solar customer used any electricity that month. Customers who got solar panels before April 2010 would not have to pay the fee.

Tom Henley, an Xcel Energy spokesman, initially told 7NEWS that implementing the fee would level the playing field for electricity users who are currently subsidizing connectivity fees for solar users, who sometimes use no electricity in a given month and therefore, pay no electrical fees

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...58/detail.html

[kajidono]

Thieves. Whoever it was that told me they'd tax me if I set up my own windmill, you were right. That makes as much sense as Flying J being able to charge me a fee because I fuel at T/A. WTF?

[simplyred1962]

If I'm ever able to....(and, hey, I know I'm day-dreaming here, but WTH? )
I'm going to go completely off the grid at home....have my home built where I have to rely on utility company's NONE AT ALL...

**sigh** never happen, though...

Judi Kay

[Roadmedic]

I was going to do it last year.

There were some of the not in our neighborhood in the county. I have an acre. They set the rules to be at least 5 acres.



The town people in government, not in our town.


I think they were in the pockets of the utility.

[Ridgerunner665]

Originally Posted by simplyred1962

If I'm ever able to....(and, hey, I know I'm day-dreaming here, but WTH? )
I'm going to go completely off the grid at home....have my home built where I have to rely on utility company's NONE AT ALL...

**sigh** never happen, though...

Judi Kay

Yes it can happen if you want it bad enough...I have an uncle that has been living that way for 40 years...no electricity, he has running water (gravity fed), no land line phone but he does have a cell phone.

Its not that he does not have $$$ for those things, he's a retired Marine and Vietnam vet...its just that he can do without those things. My Grandad was the same way...I grew up with my Grandad (Dad was always on the road, Mom wasn't around...We didn't have electricity or indoor bathrooms until my Grandmother started getting ill (Alzheimers)...Grandad did everything he could to make things easier for her. When we got the electricity and indoor bathrooms...I was 12 years old.

If I could talk my wife into it...I'd cut the power to my place today.

[Roadmedic]

Originally Posted by Ridgerunner665

Yes it can happen if you want it bad enough...I have an uncle that has been living that way for 40 years...no electricity, he has running water (gravity fed), no land line phone but he does have a cell phone.

Its not that he does not have $$$ for those things, he's a retired Marine and Vietnam vet...its just that he can do without those things. My Grandad was the same way...I grew up with my Grandad (Dad was always on the road, Mom wasn't around...We didn't have electricity or indoor bathrooms until my Grandmother started getting ill (Alzheimers)...Grandad did everything he could to make things easier for her. When we got the electricity and indoor bathrooms...I was 12 years old.

If I could talk my wife into it...I'd cut the power to my place today.

I know the Amish in northern Indiana are living without electricity.

[stranger]

What is going on with this power company is why we have never gotten self provided power, or very high fuel mileage cars, or cars that run on electricty, or even some forum of water.

There is no money in this for the established power and fuel companies, plus the goverment has to figure out how to tax sunshine and water.

It's all about money. The power companies say conserve so we won't have to build more plants, and when you do conserve, they charge you more for using less.

Just imagine were we could be as far as energy independence without corporate lobbiest and the government wanting taxes.

[MO family man]

Originally Posted by Roadmedic

I know the Amish in northern Indiana are living without electricity.

You'd be surprised what the Amish have. Hell they wake me up when I'm at home calling us on the phone absurdly early in the morning.

[kajidono]

Originally Posted by MO family man

You'd be surprised what the Amish have. Hell they wake me up when I'm at home calling us on the phone absurdly early in the morning.

You'd be surprised how many amish there are per phone. One guy gets a phone for the whole neighborhood. That's a good thing too. When you're at the reciever trying to figure out which John Smith sent a truckload of hand cut lumber, you just have to have the phone number for that county.