I was just listening to an advertisement for solar panels to provided electricity for your homes. They are promising a cost as low as $100 annually for your electrical needs. They also said that the government would pay for almost half of the initial cost. I’m not sure how successful this company and others are, but I am greatly disturbed.
We once again have the government interfering in the free market. We have a lot of people with a surplus of cash or good credit having these solar systems installed only because they government is paying half the cost. This is great for the environment and those that can afford these panels, but what about the rest the people?
When a house switches to the government subsidized power system, that house goes off the grid. The more people that go off the grid, the less money the power companies have coming in to maintain systems. Yes, of course they will need less power generating plants. They will need less transmission lines as well. Eventually there might be enough houses on one side of town off the grid that it’s no longer economically feasible to maintain those lines. They can’t go up on prices to the remaining houses because of government price controls. If they were free to raise the prices to cover maintenance cost, a lot of people would no longer be able to afford the electricity.
When a house switches to the government subsidized power system, that house goes off the grid. The more people that go off the grid, the less money the power companies have coming in to maintain systems. Yes, of course they will need less power generating plants. They will need less transmission lines as well. Eventually there might be enough houses on one side of town off the grid that it’s no longer economically feasible to maintain those lines. They can’t go up on prices to the remaining houses because of government price controls. If they were free to raise the prices to cover maintenance cost, a lot of people would no longer be able to afford the electricity.
