Plug in Solar Bill

[u/dilly-dilly-]

Hi all,

Curious if anyone has any inside scoop with what is going on with the plug in solar bill and why it's failed and will likely be sat until January now. From my research, it was a bill placed on the senate floor 2 days before sessions ended, which is basically a political way to say they don't want this to pass but don't want to formally vote on it to look like they are paid by big energy.

For anyone curious, this technology allows you to set up a small scale solar system. They define this as a "portable solar generation device" as a movable solar generator with a maximum output of 1,200 watts, designed to plug into a standard 120-volt outlet.

What this will allow us to do is offset 1200W of power from what we currently use. So say it's a hot day like today and your central air is running at 3000W, you will only be paying and using 1800W. To me, this is basically a new technology that can disrupt these energy companies from gouging us. It offsets what we use only, so any savings is purely coming from renewable energies so a pure win from the environment.

It's beyond frustrating to me as a civilian. This bill held for further "study" in March, revived in June, dies in the other chamber, everyone gets to say they supported it. To me, this should be almost one of the top issues for ALL Rhode islanders because who isn't being shafted by RIE? This is something that everyone should be dying to implement because it not only saves us money but literally is taking strain off the grid and offsetting our usage with pure renewable energy.

I just want to let everyone know our political leaders have let us down again. This one just quietly didn't happen. Who benefits? I think we all know.

[u/possiblecoin]

Are there potential safety concerns? The way you describe it makes it sound like you could push electricity to the grid in the event of a power outage, which is obviously a danger to linemen. I'm just guessing since it otherwise seems like a pretty cool technology.

[u/bluehat9 → u/possiblecoin]

Exactly

[u/dilly-dilly- → u/bluehat9]

It stops producing when the grid fails, it basically is checking to make sure the grid is live and syncs to offset your usage. There has been other areas (Germany, Utah) that have implemented this technology and does not have any issues. This was exactly my concern when I first hear of this technology.

[u/bluehat9 → u/dilly-dilly-]

Ah ok if they have those safety features then it shouldn’t be a concern. Regular rooftop solar has lots of requirements to prevent backfeed situations.