The article recently published in the National Geographic Daily News explains the magic of net-metering in technical terms, but I doubt you will get through it. Net-metering basically means that my new PV system is hooked up to the power grid and the power flows back and forth to and from the grid depending on whether I'm producing more power than I need (think sunny day, no one home) or less (at night when my system is off). Many states have laws that mandate the utility to offer this service to renewable power generators as long as the system has passed their muster and been inspected.
So what is my utility bill at the end of the month? 2.20. BUT just down the street an Electric Co-op is the utility and there the minimum monthly bill would be 26.45! And I can see it from my house! I don't use much power to begin with so my bill never exceeded 65.00 to begin with. Do a quick calculation in your head and you will see that if I lived a quarter mile down the road the payback time on my system just changed dramatically based on my utility which I can't actually choose. Under power deregulation you can choose who you buy power from, but your monthly fee is fixed by the company that supplies the hardware to your house.
But here's the kicker - it costs more than 2.20/month to actually maintain all that infrastructure to my house, right? So who pays it? All the other customers do. Unfair? That's what the article is about, and as more people install solar, the inequity increases.
