Harvesting Solar Power Foments Prices in a Vicious Cycle: Breaking the Cycle with Price Mechanisms
研究了居民太阳能发电采用如何导致电价上涨和电力公司利润下降的恶性循环，并提出了通过调整回购价格或引入订阅费来打破循环的政策建议。
Harvesting Solar Power Foments Prices in a Vicious Cycle: Breaking the Cycle with Price Mechanisms An important paper in this issue quantifies and explores how residential solar power adoption affects the price of electricity and the profit of a utility firm. It reveals the mechanism behind what is known as the “utility (death) spiral.” As more residences adopt solar power generation, the price of electricity goes up, whereas the profit of utility firm comes down. The study finds the equilibrium of a game played between consumers deciding to adopt residential solar power and the utility deciding on prices in a regulated market. The equilibrium, involving a potential bankruptcy for the utility firm and a high price for a nonadopter consumer, is desirable for neither. To avoid this, it suggests either decreasing the buyback price that the utility pays for the excess power of an adopter or introducing a subscription for adopters. These suggestions can inform pricing policies in the power market.