Nevada Penalizes Solar Energy Users With Hefty 40% Tax Increase

The Nevada Public Utility Commission has placed a high tax on solar power !!!!

Apparently it affects customers that have some kind of meter that allows sell backs to the power company.

It costs people big money to install solar units in homes.

Now the "benefits" just burned up.

Jesh. What's next?

I guess nobody can hide from the Sun.


Nevada Penalizes Solar Energy Users With Hefty 40% Tax Increase

The money-grubbing monsters from Nevada are going all-in against renewable energy.

An absurd monthly fee imposed on solar customers was just voted in by the Nevada Public Utility Commission (PUC), virtually penalizing net metering (NEM) users of the renewable energy and in a sense, screwing these guys over after making the investment to go solar. Yip-dee-doo!

Such is the current state that Nevada is in right now after it turns out that consumers opting with solar energy in the state are eating up on the potential profit that NV Energy should have. And in order for the company to combat this, they were able to coerce lawmakers to make solar energy insanely expensive – in hopes of convincing people to just stay blindly on the grid and stop being so ‘hippy’.

Hot Stuff !!

Must be costing the power companies big money - enough to sway their reps to vote in this kind of punishment. I swear, you can't win with these cretins. Try to do good and they penalize you. What a sham, I hope the people of Nevada raise hell at them over this - enough to make them rescind this insanity.

a reply to: xuenchen

Our government is corrupted from the very bottom to the very top and all across the nation. It is despicable.

If Tesla had introduced free energy to the public in this day and age, it would be taxed to the gills.

The power companies are losing their grip and they know it.

They tried to legislate a solar tax here where I live. It went over like a lead balloon. I am certain they aren't done trying yet.

It's things like these that just show how corrupt America has become.

It's scandalous that these policies can be allowed to pass, they are doing this out of greed and not to better the lives of the public they are meant to be serving.

People talk about America being the bastion of freedom but it certainly doesn't appear that way with ridiculous laws like these and your civil forfeiture laws.

These people need Aquion's saltwater battery. They are going to be sold for between $1k and $3k, (storage power), and they could allow solar people to go totally off grid (however scary in a real drought of sunlight).

It is still risky for them, since some states tax you for collecting rain water, so it would not be a stretch if they find a way to tax those salt water batteries as well.

I'd say buy the battery backup system and cut them loose for good, but then they'd have you branded a squatter on your own property and toss you out..

I install solar as well as other renewable energy systems and have been noticing this is becoming a trend in other states as well...

Solar systems have been becoming dramatically cheaper over the last few years. They're almost affordable to the average home owner now and they are truly a great investment. You can't find the same kind of returns without high risk.

a reply to: Quauhtli

Agree, but you have to steer well clear of operations like Solar City, that put leans on your homes as well as variable rates that can sometime equal or EXCEED , what you had on the grid. Scary times for inovation, since the PTB want you under some kind of thumb, always.

a reply to: Quauhtli

How is that freedom?
You are getting taxed on collecting rain, seriously?

I'm lost for words.

a reply to: xuenchen

Hopefully the good people in Nevada will fight this very illegal tax, it doesn't sound right.

But then again politicians do what they do in order to see if it sticks.

a reply to: xuenchen

Well this is what happens when Warren Buffett buys a utility company. Rates soar, and any competition is legislated out.

Hooray for US politics.

a reply to: charlyv

We are (hopefully) closing on our first home some time this summer and although I have not started to do even my preliminary research yet, introducing solar panels is high up on the list of things we want to do.

In my area Solar City is EVERYWHERE (so automatically I had reservations).

Are you knowledgeable about photovoltaic panels? Have you done this previously? Of course I will be doing my research on the net and asking people that I know personally about their experiences but I never want to limit myself on hearing from people that know what they are talking about.

a reply to: xuenchen

This doesn't surprise me. If people start finding a way to try to live as independently as possibly, the government will try to rain on your parade and either tax it or shut it down. They always want their cut, ya know. Can't circumvent the BS taxes (BS taxes, not all taxes) they shake us up for whatever they can.

I don't normally agree with your usual blatantly partisan posts, but this one has me very curious. I'll look into it more.

You get a flag (yeah, stop the world).

Yeah, how long did we pay for the Spanish-American war, via ma bell. Truth. We paid for it from 1898 to 2006.

usatoday30.usatoday.com...

Did anyone get a part of the 15b $

First the State makes it illegal for the regular population to be able to produce 100% of the power needed via solar , whatever. Then they throw in a heavy tax on the power they force you to use. Win-Win for the electrical producers ,Lose-Lose for the consumer.

I fought that battle here in my state. On my little getaway in case the SHTF , I have solar , generators , and a watermill. No power at all ,near completely off all grids. The state and the power company want me to pay for something . When setting this up , I decided to see if the law was still in effect that the power company would have to buy back the power I would be pushing into their lines. Found out that that was a no-go and I still had to pay a "base rate" every month. And , better yet , I couldnt have the meter removed to keep from paying the base rate.

originally posted by: eluryh22
a reply to: charlyv

We are (hopefully) closing on our first home some time this summer and although I have not started to do even my preliminary research yet, introducing solar panels is high up on the list of things we want to do.

In my area Solar City is EVERYWHERE (so automatically I had reservations).

Are you knowledgeable about photovoltaic panels? Have you done this previously? Of course I will be doing my research on the net and asking people that I know personally about their experiences but I never want to limit myself on hearing from people that know what they are talking about.

Solar City is huge in my neck of the woods a well, and there are some very mixed reviews. I wanted to be able to do my own work, but my town, which has it's own electric company, will not let "non-certified" providers on their grid, and some of the horror stories with Solar City , in other towns really turned me off to the idea. They can be easily googled up.

Not an expert, but understand the underlying equipment: Panels, inverters, storage and crossbar. Not doable for me unless I went off the grid... something you do not want to do in New England.

a reply to: xuenchen

And regular consumers are supposed to pick up the tab with increased rates so you can sell your excess energy. I thought the whole pitch on solar was shady. Install our expensive panels and sell what you don't use back to the electric company.

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: xuenchen

Well this is what happens when Warren Buffett buys a utility company. Rates soar, and any competition is legislated out.

Hooray for US politics.

Actually, this is on ALEC and the Koch brothers. It's been part of their agenda since at least 2014 and both of these articles are from 2014. Nice deflecting though.
The Koch Attack on Solar Energy

At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels.

For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean energy

An alliance of corporations and conservative activists is mobilising to penalise homeowners who install their own solar panels – casting them as "freeriders" – in a sweeping new offensive against renewable energy, the Guardian has learned.

Over the coming year, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) will promote legislation with goals ranging from penalising individual homeowners and weakening state clean energy regulations, to blocking the Environmental Protection Agency, which is Barack Obama's main channel for climate action.

Details of Alec's strategy to block clean energy development at every stage – from the individual rooftop to the White House – are revealed as the group gathers for its policy summit in Washington this week.

Makes sense, in a weird sort of way, that if you're using the grid, whether as a source or a sink, you should help pay for the infrastructure.

By that, I mean that if your pole-to-meter stretch of cables has an issue, who should pay for repairs and maintenance?

Since you, with solar to spare are uploading as well as downloading power, seems proper for you to share the burden for it.


Flame suit := on.

City living problems.

Out in the sticks, I can go off the grid at will, water, sewage and power.

And in fact, I am off for water and sewage. Once I get home for good (next year in Jerusalem!) it's going to be a solar paradise, with major propane generator backup and a couple thousand gallons of propane on-site, and I'm going to keep the grid tie only for last ditch emergency. The base rate out there is miniscule.