Georgia Magazine - January 2014 - (Page 16)

By Martha Zoller, zpolitics.com Who really pays for solar? I was listening to consumer expert Clark Howard the other day. He was talking about his electric car and how he's "freeloading" on the roads. I love Clark, and I think he gives great advice, so it "got me to thinkin'." Clark and I work for the same company, and I exchanged a couple of emails with him on the subject of who pays for infrastructure for roads as we get away from gasoline and the gasoline tax becomes obsolete. Clark asked his listeners what they think about how to pay for roads. Then, we got on the subject of solar. That exchange made me think about the solar debate in Georgia. Somebody has to provide the infrastructure for power. By law, where Georgia Power or the electric membership corporations [EMCs] serve, there has to be infrastructure there whether you use it or not. Whether it's roads or power, someone has to pay for the infrastructure-and ultimately it's going to be you. Right now, roadways are funded through a fuel tax. It's a social compact of sorts. The more you drive, the more you pay (in fuel tax), but in the end, everyone pays who uses the roads. Then came the electric car. While cars that use gasoline pay for roadway maintenance, electric vehicles currently avoid covering their impact cost. Not a big deal-for now. Consider this: A recent Pike Research analysis projects there will be more than a million electric vehicles on U.S. roadways by 2018. While this rapidly growing segment of transportation will be pounding potholes and creating other impacts on roadways (along with demand for lane space and lights), electric car drivers will be freeloading on the backs of fuel taxpayers. So how does this logic fit into the solar debate we are having in Georgia? How does solar "freeloading" affect energy infrastructure and the growth of solar energy? Similar to the fuel tax, a social compact exists to fund build-out and maintenance of the web of wires that run our modern economy. As with the fuel tax, the more electricity you use the more you pay to "patch the potholes" in the electrical grid, so to speak. That is, until the advent of solar energy. I will always be the first one to say that individual liberty is the foundation of our republic. However, there are issues requiring common cooperation in areas of the greater good. On a federal level, defense is one of those issues. On a local level, roads and utilities fall into that realm. Install solar panels on your house if you can afford it, and there are tax incentives making it something to think about, which we'll discuss in another column. However, a national debate is developing from California to Georgia as to who will fund our electrical grid as more and more decentralized solar production comes on-line. Currently, solar users are freeloading, just like electric cars, by not paying the backup and maintenance costs of the electrical infrastructure. Yet solar users expect and the law requires a reliable electricity grid to be there, even if solar panels fail to operate. The key problem with wind This column from zPolitics.com is reprinted with permission from the author as part of Georgia EMC's ongoing commitment to provide EMC member-consumers, policy-makers and the public at large with educational information about energy issues of importance to Georgians. 16 More online at www.georgiamagazine.org and solar is storage for times when you can't produce enough energy. If a restaurant owner decides he wants to go solar and he can't store the energy, what happens on a cloudy day at lunchtime when his business peaks? The traditional electricity grid is expected to be there, and someone has got to pay for that. Experts on either side will argue the relative risks and benefits of solar generation, and solar and other renewables will become a bigger part of the mix. As that happens, these social compacts must evolve as technology advances, be it electric cars or solar panels. If not, the impacts of those that use an infrastructure (roadways or wires) will be freeloading on the backs of the full participants in a given societal compact that makes the infrastructure work and our society function. We have work to do, so let's not go to our corners, let's get to the table and work on a solution. Martha Zoller is the editor in chief for zpolitics.com and the co-host of "Georgia's Morning News with Zoller and Bryant" on Fox News WGAU and syndicated around the state. The subject of solar energy continues to receive attention in the media. For more web exclusive information and a link to the web exclusive Georgia Energy Outlook column titled "Sunlight is free ... solar power is not" [July 2013, page 15], see page 50C of the January 2014 digital edition at www. georgiamagazine.org. GEORGIA MAGAZINE http://www.ZPOLITICS.COM http://www.zpolitics.com http://www.zPolitics.com http://www.georgiamagazine.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - January 2014

Georgia Magazine - January 2014
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Liberty Notes
Picture This?
Georgia News
Calendar of Events
Currents
Georgia’s Energy Outlook
Crossing the Line
Meet the Long Family
The Washington Youth Tour
Tips for College Freshmen
Around Georgia
Georgia Gardens
Georgia Cooks
My Georgia
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - January 2014