“It has reduced my bills but it will take 7 to 10 years to break even.”

If you break even in 10 years that means that the money you invested has earned enough over that period to return your invested dollars. Yes, you aren’t getting a check in the mail. But you are avoiding paying a utility bill. Same-same.

Had you invested you money in something like a stock or bond you would be getting a check and then paying that money out to the electricity company. Either way your bank balance would be the same.

You still have some sort of a utility bill, that probably means that you have fees other than the cost of electricity. That’s normal. What your installed solar does is to produce the electricity you use. It does not pay for your grid connection. The grid is providing you backup and “storage”. Without the grid there you would need a bunch of batteries and a generator. The grid is a bargain.

As for your house value, studies show that houses with installed solar sell for quite a bit more than houses without solar. The additional selling price, on average, is more than the solar system cost.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/study-finds-solar-panels-increase-home-values/

7.2% return with low risk. That’s an incredible investment. You might expect 8% with an index stock fund but you’d have a lot more volatility (risk).

A 7 year breakeven is a bit over 10% per year return on investment.

If APS wants to remain competitive in the utility business they need to do things like creating more of the power their customers want to buy and stop trying to buy into more coal plants at 4 corners. I don’t care what you do to coal – coal is dirty. While coal is cheap now it will NOT be in the near future and to me this is a flawed business strategy on the part of APS. When they come back to the Corporation Commission asking for a rate increase to cover the cost of coal plant improvements I will remind them of their failed business strategy.

Solar [and other renewables] at utility scale have many advantages and APS should be embracing the technologies since people want cleaner sources of energy. That is reality regardless of the legislative maneuvering APS might try. Maybe they should try creating their own solar division and try to learn how to become a cost competitive supplier.

It is also true that SOMEONE has to pay for and maintaining the transmission infrastructure. On my current electric bill [Arizona] there are already two charges that seem to address transmission infrastructure maintenance. They are “Delivery Services” and “Renewable Energy Standard Tariff[s]” Those charges add up to a significant portion of my total bill and I don’t even have solar but I am helping those that do install solar.

It seem like APS needs an attitude adjustment within its management structure. Mahybe its time to stop trying to legislate and instead try to innovate.