Cheap solar power is sending electrical grids into a death spiral

Utility behavior and regulation

• Many commenters argue the “death spiral” is largely self‑inflicted by monopolistic utilities: hostile net metering terms, fees, slow interconnection, and lobbying against small-scale solar.
• Others note some utilities do actively encourage rooftop solar and offer net metering, though permitting and interconnection delays of weeks to months are common and contentious.
• Strong disagreement over ownership: some want poles-and-wires to be public and generation competitive; others say ownership matters less than effective regulation and tariff design.

Tariffs, pricing models, and equity

• Thread highlights shifts away from flat per‑kWh rates toward:
  • Time‑of‑use pricing,
  • Demand charges (billing on peak kW draw),
  • “Controlled loads” where utilities can curtail devices (e.g., EV chargers) in exchange for cheaper rates.
• Concern that as affluent customers add solar and storage, grid costs concentrate on poorer, non‑solar customers, raising their bills.
• Some see this as “disaster” only for utilities and bondholders, not for consumers who can exit; others stress everyone still relies on the grid for rare events.

Technical and market issues: net metering, curtailment, negative prices

• Debate on whether ending or limiting net metering is a big step: in some places (e.g., Australia) it was never allowed or has been replaced with export limits and remote curtailment.
• Negative wholesale prices are defended as necessary signals when solar “overvolts” the grid; critics see them as part of a complex, hostile environment driving more self‑generation.
• Several point out that grid operators increasingly curtail residential exports during oversupply, while still allowing households to charge their own batteries.

“Wasted” solar and embodied energy

• One camp says unused rooftop generation isn’t truly wasteful because the sunlight would hit the roof anyway; grid operators should add storage or flexible loads.
• Others argue waste exists because panels have embodied energy, finite lifespans, and opportunity costs: unused output lowers lifecycle efficiency and leaves unmet demand elsewhere.
• There’s a side discussion on whether “lots of self-generated power will be wasted” is mainly about local oversizing versus utilization in centralized plants.

Batteries, storage, and grid scale

• Some insist batteries are not yet a full “grid-scale” replacement, mainly used for fast response and frequency support.
• Others counter that battery deployment at grid scale is already significant (citing regions like California and parts of Australia) and growing quickly.
• Ideas raised for excess power include home batteries, EVs, electrolysis/green hydrogen, pumped hydro, seasonal thermal storage (e.g., “sand batteries”), and even niche uses like crypto mining.

Distributed vs centralized futures

• Several advocate a hybrid model: centralized baseline generation plus widespread rooftop solar, storage, and demand flexibility.
• “Selfish solar” (large home systems plus batteries using the grid only as occasional backup) is seen as both economically attractive and potentially destabilizing if it becomes widespread.
• There is skepticism toward the article’s framing: some see it as privileging incumbent business models; others read it as a fairly neutral explanation of how rooftop solar disrupts traditional utility economics.