Solarpalooza on LI, NY

[CaptSpiff]

Thought I'd pass along some statistics I got in a flyer from the local Power Co:

- In December 2014 a ceremony was held to commission the 10,000th solar PV array installed.
- It took about 14 years to get to the 10,000 mark.
- Long Island NY has 41% (10,000) of all the PV installs in the entire NYS.
- Total (residential & commercial) installed capacity is 88.44 Megawatts.

And here's the kicker,.... wait for it,..... they expect to commission the 15,000th install by end of this year !

Scary!

 

[woodgeek]

Indeed. Solar has been managing a >50% annual growth rate since it got cheap.

For comparison, CA is over 5000 MW, or 60x as much, and still growing at 50% pa.

 

[brad wilton]

affordability is what counts it's like electronics let the people with the means buy the new $10,000 flat screen and in 5 yrs I can finally afford it.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Yup... LI has a good portion of the wealth in NYS. They'd be able to afford it faster than upstate could.

 

[vinny11950]

Long Island electric bills are very high, so high people around here do all types of things to reduce their bills.

And still, it is just scratching the surface of all that could be done to reduce the reliance on the Electric companies.

We recently went from National Grid (who lost the contract after their response to Hurricane Sandy) to PSE&G. At first we thought is was going to be for the better until the bills started going up. And then in some cases PSE&G got caught over billing lots of customers.

Part of the switch to PV is the animus toward the Electric companies around here. Whether it is fair or not, it is vibrant.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

If a utility can lose a contract and be thrown out, as it appears, who owns the infrastructure?

 

[CaptSpiff]

If a utility can lose a contract and be thrown out, as it appears, who owns the infrastructure?

That could be a thread onto itself. Perhaps several.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I'm sure, and mistreating customers is a sure fire way to drive them away from your product and to a competitor.

It's great that there is an alternative to the local power company that is becoming more and more affordable.

Are they going off grid or connecting to it?

 

[DBoon]

If a utility can lose a contract and be thrown out, as it appears, who owns the infrastructure?

I believe the situation on Long Island is that the old Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) went bankrupt and NY state somehow came to own the assets and contracted out the running of the utility.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Interesting... How crappy of a job would you have to do in order to go bankrupt running a monopoly on a product people want/need?

 

[woodgeek]

With a lot of depreciating, undermaintained infrastructure, and a couple big storms to wipe it out, simple 'poor planning' would do it.

 

[vinny11950]

Interesting... How crappy of a job would you have to do in order to go bankrupt running a monopoly on a product people want/need?

DBoom is correct, the state owns it. It went from LILCO to LIPA, which are public entities and they farm out the maintenance contracts to larger and more capable power companies.

There are many reasons why electricity is so high in Long Island, including the Shorem nuclear plant that was built and never put into use because of local concern about nuclear accidents. The cost is still being paid by the consumers. Also other supply lines have not been built to tap into the cheaper gas sources (there have been battles in communities that don't want them built). There is a lot of NIMBY around here. And then the nebulous accounting from the State govn't and power companies. It adds up to the perfect !@#$% storm.