Solar PV and Battery Back-Up — An Oddity
A reader asked me to comment on the article linked below, but frankly, I simply don’t understand it.
If this is to be believed, a power utility (Southern California Edison) denied a homeowner’s application to connect his solar PV array to the grid because the batteries used to store energy for emergency backup power when the grid went down were considered “power generators” and not energy storage devices. Apparently, the project did not qualify for their net metering program because the utility could not distinguish between power produced by the solar panels and power produced by the batteries, which it considers a nonrenewable source of power.
Obviously, batteries don’t generate power. We all learned that in second or third grade. Maybe they think the homeowner has a coal-fired power plant in his garage? Sorry, I’m lost here.
I’d never come across the 
In hard times every business is paying particular attention to their bottom line. Tasks and processes are streamlined at every corner and all outgoing bills must be reduced to ensure that a business can still turn a profit. A key aspect of monitoring the bottom line for any commercial business is efficient use of utilities.
Here’s a conversation with senior energy analyst and committed environmentalist Glenn Doty that I thought readers would enjoy:
Question: The average installation of solar panels on the roof of a house offsets the equivalent amount of CO2 as planting how many acres of trees?
Frequent commenter Tim Kingston just sent me this piece on “
Gardening Woes
