Taxing Renewable Energy
With the advent of distributed generation, say, roof-top solar, and all the other dynamics surrounding energy in today’s world, how does one ensure that everyone pays equally for the transmission and distribution grid, while not actively discouraging the migration to clean energy? If you’re Germany, you place a 4.4 Euro-cent tax on each kilowatt-hour that each homeowner or business generates with his PV system, and hope for the best.
Needless to say, it’s a controversial subject. More in the article linked above.
I guess I don’t understand the controversy here. My electric bill includes charges for generation, transmission, distribution and a charge for servicing the account. Transmission and distribution add up to almost as much as the generation charge. The account service charge is a fixed amount. In the case of netmetering, you turn the meter backwards until you are even any additional power beyond that you are only paid the generation price. Whoever they sell the power to pays the transmission and distribution charges as usual. The transmission and distribution charges are used for the system maintenance and repair. I guess the rest of the country does it different?