Net metering tariffs, such as described by CTLawyer, are a great deal for those who are able to deploy rooftop solar in excess of their load and feed energy (MWH) back to the grid. However, its generally not a great deal for the local utility since in most cases, it must still have sufficient generating capacity (MW) to serve those same customers if/when their solar installations (and any linked storage) is unable to meet their load. In fact, California is scaling back its net metering tariff to reduce energy payments to solar customers. There are also cooperatives that aggregate community solar and are able to get credit for some discounted capacity value along with energy sales. Over the long term, as onsite battery storage become more efficient and economic, these problems will lessen considerably and utility capacity backup requirements for solar customers will come down.
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