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Comment by the_sleaze_ | Hacker News Reader

In Alabama regulatory capture is such that installing solar panels attached to the grid incurs fees higher than just buying the electricity from Alabama Power.

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Why not install and not attach to the grid? My understanding is if you have them attached to batteries and not feeding back it is considered off grid in some places.

I don't know anything about Alabama but in California you generally can't create off-grid developments without permission from a local authority, because it's a recognized problem that "off-grid" systems are often under specified, leading to danger for the occupants. And nobody really wants off-grid to proliferate because it would tend to concentrate the costs of the grid upon the remaining users who will be the ones least able to afford it.

For a place that was two miles from a power line, I would think anyone would approve of off-grid.

Lots of places that will get $150k+ quotes for electrical service too.

At that point, off grid is a no-brainer for everyone except industrial users (and those lots aren’t useful for them anyway).

I'm interested to read a source on this if you have it

Sure.

> Alabama Power, with approval from the Alabama PSC, charges residential solar customers a monthly fee of $5.41 per kilowatt based on the size of their solar system

> Alabama Power's residential electricity rates generally range from approximately 11 to 13 cents per kWh, plus a $14.50 monthly base charge

https://www.selc.org/press-release/court-allows-alabama-powe...

interesting, ty for the follow up

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