Comment by Supermancho
11 hours ago
Solar panels added to a grid is not plug and play.
When you're connecting solar to a municipal grid (which is what most homes are connected to), it could theoretically be taxed or even subjected to a tariff. The "added" power (often excess) is monitored for billing credits/payout/other, among other reasons like grid integrity.
Solar panels are literally plug-and-play, though! If your market doesn't have plug-in "balcony solar" yet, it is because your lawmakers are blocking it.
And indeed, they can tax excess solar, but they can't tax the power you use yourself. Backfeed tax gets too high to use the grid as a battery? Buy a home battery, problem solved.
You can even buy a small solar panel for ~$10 with positive and negative leads you solder; and power something like a Pi Pico^ directly. It kinda feels like magic.
^Not recommended literally due to brownouts/etc, but a cheap power management IC on a breadboard can solve that. Alternatively, add a battery/etc.
Home solar panels and batteries are just like this except on a bigger scale; and with (hopefully) more QC.
Plenty of grids have different sorts of net metering ratios, grid maintenance fees, etc. But it's nothing compared to what you'd be paying taking power off of the grid, and there is a break-even period often measured in single-digit years. I still do not understand the point of what the GP was trying to make w.r.t. "taxes".