Paul, I can't spend any more time on this discussion. However as I said somewhere in this thread, if the utility properly charges for and separates its fixed costs overhead and operating costs from the actual energy (kwhr) charge, no one is supporting anyone else's solar panels!!

The problem does occur when utilities have artificially low meter and fixed charges, burying some or all of those in the kwhr charge.  The utilities are going to have to fix that. It is a structural problem and does not assign costs honestly.

As it is in many utilities currently, if you go to Florida for the winter, the repairmen, office staff, wires, poles and transformers are still there, even if you are not using any electricity. If your REC doesn't have a sufficient meter and facilities charge, separate from the kwhr charge, other customers are supporting YOU. This needs to be fixed. 

"I'm subsidizing you" is just an argument some folks use to muddy the waters and get others riled up.  But in the end, the true economics will win out. That is why you are seeing more and more solar panels go up, including at utilities.

As I said, our local REC has about a $40/mo meter charge. That is their charge for facilities even if a customer uses zero electricity in a month.

Once the other utilities get this billing straight, no one will be supporting anyone else.  As it is today on our REC, no one is supporting anyone else's solar panels.

Also note in my numbers above I did not include the current 30% federal rebate on solar which would change the payback period from 10-11 years to 7-8 years.

However, the first thing that every home (and hog barn etc!) should do before spending money on solar panels is to look at their current electrical useage and change most light bulbs to LEDs!!! LED bulbs save about 80% of the electricity used by an incandescent bulb.

The "battery" argument is also bogus in the real world. If someone really got into the specifics of our electrical power grid, there is a vast excess of power at night. Why is it the power companies almost give away free yard and street light electricity at night???  In reality the power companies are usually very happy to have a paying customer for electricity at night.  The whole system needs to work together, not fight each other. Change is uncomfortable, but it happens anyway.