Pulling the plug?

There are SDG&E customers that have installed solar panels to produce their own electricity but are now upset the company may charge a fee to use their grid. Solar use has been around in many ways for more than 100 years but mostly experimental. A local user with 48 panels is considering pulling the plug and going completely off the grid?

That does not sound logical when considering the necessity of buying large storage batteries, charging and maintaining a constant source of power, creating one’s own grid and hoping the sun shines the expected seven to eight hours each day, which will not happen. There is some reason to be disturbed about SDG&E not advertising this prior to solar, but it has not happened yet. It’s rather like stable owners shooting the horses because autos took over.

In the 1930’s, some in my town used many car batteries strung together which were partly usable for limited use, but mostly to run small pumps for well water when the wind was not turning the mill. I am not really good at arithmetic, but the concept of pulling the plug doesn’t add up. That would send back him 100 years or so.

John R. Limpus