Problem is what if there is a reason where solar generation is interrupted for a period that is longer than the battery storage such as a week long winter storm? Or perhaps a hurricane that damages the solar panels? In a black swan event, are the solarists(?) going to be content with decision to be disconnected to the grid and powerless for what could be a prolong period OR would they be setting themselves up for a "humanitarian crisis"? The questions above are why utilities want everyone to be connected to the grid and at least paying a minimum monthly bill as you said the availability for back-up capacity that isn't being used is expensive to maintain.

I agree. This anti-coal and nuke attitude is attacking base load power supply which is critical to the grid till either feasible energy storage is available. People don't realize that you need peak conditions for most renewables to be profitable and the environments that are usually suitable for those assets are from the populations they serve (transmission loss). Take a worst case scenario such as a winter storm: Cloudy for days (solar is out), the wind can blow so cold and be so hard that wind turbines are shut down so they don't destroy themselves. It's winter, so dams are prob shut down waiting for the spring thaw. Without coal and nukes, your left with nat gas. Now you have the nat gas infrastructure being sucked dry all at once where the storm is. We need to have a diversified power generation portfolio. Also, this shot power prices up today: http://www.edf.org/media/supre... It's not cheap being green.

Or the firm that bought the rights to control the gateway in and out of ebay front runs even your first Lambo bid by using the power of gatekeeper to see your bid and place their own bid ahead of yours thru the power of speed. Remember, because they own the gateway, they beat out your bid technically before it entered eBay (the exchange), so are they breaking exchange rules? You've now spent $1 million on the 3 cars. God forbid there's a flash crash and all offers to sell are frontrun so the gateway keeper can exit their position and you're left with junk.