Who has the power when it comes to electricity generation?
The consequences of a given technology progressing to the extent that it creates previously unimagined possibilities can, on occasions be far reaching and complex. In a world in which we have already seen major industries crumble and fall due to the development of technologies that allow users to bypass them, we have for some years now been waiting for the next chapter, one with potentially enormous impact and particularly problematic in the case of Spain: the development of technologies that allow private individuals or small businesses to generate electricity at levels sufficient for distribution using that most renewable of sources, the sun.
In short, solar panel technology is now extremely efficient, while at the same time, a number of visionary companies are investing heavily in electrical accumulators, outfits such as Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, or individuals like Vinod Khosla, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk. There are now some 600,000 decentralized electrical energy generation systems installed in homes and businesses in the United States, prompting protests in some states from the big players who have traditionally dominated the power generation market.
Hawaii provides a particularly interesting case in point: a very sunny place by any standards, the Aloha state is the perfect candidate for developing this kind of energy: in fact it is already very common to see two types of panel side by side on many rooftops: those used to heat water, and photovoltaic. Around 12 percent of Hawaiian homes already have photovoltaic panels, sparking a battle between users and electricity distributors: in recent years, many consumers have noticed how it is taking longer and longer to have their domestic installations approved and set up, meaning that for months on end they have to pay electricity bills while at the same time, the amount the utilities pay households for the energy they put into the grid has fallen by half.
The electricity companies say that the problem is the type of energy that households are generating, and that the grid is not set up to manage inverse flows and production of energy of this type. Furthermore, they say, in many cases, the electricity cannot be measured or taken directly into account by the companies because the installation is behind a domestic meter, a situation that, according to the companies, can lead to overload or blackouts. To the conventional players in the electricity generation and distribution market, the idea of being forced to pay the same users that were paying them before, in exchange for a power that in some cases cannot be predicted or accounted for sounds pretty much like a sacrilege. If we consider it for Spain, one of the countries with a highest number of second homes in sunny places where they could be peacefully generating an income for its owners instead of costing money, the idea sounds even worse for the tradicional utilities…
Spain is an especially paradoxical case: in Europe’s sunniest nation, and one that is dependent on imported energy, the installation of domestic photovoltaic panels remains largely symbolic due to the “threat” of legislation that would, in theory, penalize anybody who put them to use, a law that is not even in the pipeline to be approved by Congress, and that seems simply to be the outcome of intensive lobbying by the electricity companies. In Germany, in comparison, government subsidies mean that the rooftops of private households and businesses of all kinds are filled with photovoltaic panels, to the extent that the country has become the subject of many studies from around the world: in particular periods, solar energy has provided over 40% of total electricity consumption in the country, and 20% for the 24h-day. The official goal is to increase renewables’ contribution to the country’s overall electricity consumption, with long-term minimum targets that are 35% by 2020, 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
As batteries and photovoltaic panels become more efficient (the price of the panels have been reduced by 50% since 2006) , it seems clear that the technological future of electricity generation will lead to decentralization and that there will be huge business opportunities for the installation of domestic equipment, but that this business will also become a risk sport when the electricity utilities start fighting to hold onto their business model. Once again we will see resistance to technology in a number of areas of the economy. The battle for decentralization might appear to be about technological development and innovation, will in fact be of another nature.
(En español, aquí)
