Florida Light and Power Moves Against Net Metering

[SCharged]

Good luck. Just think, if CA struggles with this kind of BS, do you really think you have a chance in FL?
Batteries is your solution - at least your sun pairs up well with your usage. The winter in many areas makes going off grid with batteries a bit harder.
At some point, what do you expect FPL to do - not maximize profits? And are that not supposed to use their friendly politicians to make that happen? Your governor and legislature like to pretend climate change isn't worth the trouble.
Move or batteries or engage in politics. Not sure grassroots is going to cut it but maybe in 10 years you can change your politicians...

I'm in NC where we still have reasonably solar friendly policies. Definitely not comfortable with them long-term though. I pay $14 a month for grid connectivity but so do all rate payers. Net metering that zeros out May 31. Hard to make it through Dec and Jan up here though with heatpumps (and the thirstier cars in the cold) even with a large array. In much of Fl, I could be off grid with my array.

FPL limits the size of your rooftop solar. It is in their contract that also requires a $1m liability insurance policy before they schedule the switchover.

 

[CRIMSON_DATE]

You can't go off grid in the sense that you don't have FPL service but you can still can have off-grid solar. When I redo my roof I intend to install around 25-30KW of solar on my roof with about 4 powerwalls (likely enphase) the system will be completely isolated from my mains .

Today I have:

Mains W/Grid Tied Solar > transferswitch > Generator

It will change to:

Solar W battery Backup ------\
TRANSFER SWITCH > TRANSFER SWItCH > Generator
MAINS -----------------------/

So I'll run solar & battery off grid using a transfer switch to select between mains & solar with solar preferred and then have a second transfer switch to engauge the generator if both the mains and the solar are not operating.

This gives me fallback to the grid if I need it but it also puts me fully off grid for my solar and because I am not grid tied with my solar I don't need to pay that Tier 2 netmeetering insurance fee.

 

[David_Cary]

Sounds like there is some disagreement whether or not you can be off-grid. Which is it? And how enforced? I can disconnect power at anytime - I could probably get away with rehooking it backup each winter but there is a charge.
Living in NC, I have some concerns if our governor were to switch. It doesn't seem likely given the demographic trends but one never knows.
We currently have a proposal that only impacts new solar installations and hasn't passed anyway.

OT - I refuse to travel to Florida. I wonder if DeSantis has poked the Disney bear so that things might change? I suppose there is little chance of the legislature changing even without Disney money.

 

[SCharged]

Latest news showed DeSantis went heading on with Disney. I hope ppl boycott the tourism in FL., honestly. Going against solar, and all the other nonsense. There is huge corruption in the political and judicial system here no doubt about that.

 

[dgpcolorado]

 

[dfwatt]

Sounds like there is some disagreement whether or not you can be off-grid. Which is it? And how enforced? I can disconnect power at anytime - I could probably get away with rehooking it backup each winter but there is a charge.
Living in NC, I have some concerns if our governor were to switch. It doesn't seem likely given the demographic trends but one never knows.
We currently have a proposal that only impacts new solar installations and hasn't passed anyway.

OT - I refuse to travel to Florida. I wonder if DeSantis has poked the Disney bear so that things might change? I suppose there is little chance of the legislature changing even without Disney money.

My assumption was previously that you could simply disconnect. Tesla Energy in Florida tells me that this is not legally allowed. So they will tax you for your installation, recapture the lost money from your solar, take your output to reduce their costs of course, and in the process undercut any chance that the disruptive technology will be adopted on a large scale (that otherwise might create a distributed as opposed to a centralized grid) which would threaten their billion dollars worth of profits and their centralized control and hegemony.

Once they have rendered rooftop solar cost-ineffective, they will of course create industrial scale solar farms and Trumpet how Green they are, and of course keep their profits high. This would all be impossible without a bought-and-paid-for legislature, but in Florida, where people are brainwashed enough to vote against their interests because right wing Republicans talk the free market game, it's all very possible. It's all quite amazing frankly. Corporate socialism on steroids packaged as a free-market defense against elitist rooftop solar. It's about as realistic as Putin's rationalization for invading Ukraine – that he's protecting the country against Jewish Nazis. But such nonsense of course is essential to all effective disinformation Campaigns. Papers in Florida are full of attacks on net metering because it's elitist and only rich people can afford rooftop solar. It's really a remarkable full-court press against rooftop solar.

 

[dfwatt]

Even though Governor Ron did one good thing (very possibly the only good thing he's done in office) and vetod the anti net metering bill, they managed to pass a 300% increase in connection charge so that it went from a reasonable $9 a month to just under $30. For folks jumping up-and-down about how I'm getting subsidized by the poor, we put in 2 MW of free power into the grid every year and receive nothing for that - net meetering in a sense is not really not meeting. I know folks who put 5 MW into the grid. But what do we know we're a bunch of elitists right?