Eideard

German renewable energy company LichtBlick on Wednesday said it has teamed up with carmaker Volkswagen to bring miniature power stations for home use to the market in the spring of 2010.

A number of energy companies are experimenting with small scale power units, but so far this market has not posed any competition to large, integrated power suppliers…LichtBlick, whose name translates to “a glimmer of hope,” said this could change in the long run.

“By selling home power plants for decentralized and flexible power production, LichtBlick opens a new chapter of intelligent energy provision,” Christian Friege, chairman of the Hamburg-based company, said in a statement. “…we know how power and gas markets work and how to organize distribution. In Volkswagen, we have won an ideal partner,” he said.

LichtBlick, which currently has 490,000 green power customers, said it was aiming to sell 100,000 units called “EcoBlue” to create the equivalent of a 2,000 megawatts power station…Run with Volkswagen natural gas engines and eventually intended to be fired by biogas from non-fossil sources, the new units would produce power on demand, store heat and thus produce a constant hot water supply, it said…

But instead of just burning fuel, they would become able, via smart meters, to push power back into the electricity grid at short notice at times of load shortfalls, becoming a big alternative supplier.

The units would be marketed in Hamburg first, and later in other parts of the country at an individual installation cost of 5,000 euros per household, LichtBlick said.

Essentially, this is a lease package producing hot water and electricity for the home. The hot water is for heating and typical hot water consumption. The electricity should produce a surplus to be sold back into the grid.

Am I tempted? You betcha.

“A license to print money”

Xcel Energy is proposing a new penalty on Colorado residents who generate their own renewable electricity.

The “infrastructure upkeep fee” could range between $20 and $200 per year, the Denver Post reports. Customers who buy and install their own solar panels would essentially be asked to keep paying for some of the energy they’re no longer using from Xcel’s electricity grid.

“It’s only fair everyone pay for the system,” an Xcel spokesman said, noting that the grid provides a “backup” for solar users.

Huh? Is there any other industry that could get away with proposing something like this? Your customers don’t need your product anymore, so you propose making them pay for it anyway, just in case they need it again someday?

What’s really going on here is the beginning of a potentially massive powershift, one in which Xcel and other large utilities’ customers are increasingly becoming the competition by generating their own electricity. Xcel has a strong record of supporting renewable energy, so long as it’s the one generating the profits.

These are the sort of schmucks who’ve been in charge of so-called public utilities all my life. They get a guaranteed profit structure. State regulators band over backwards [and forwards] to keep them happy. And, of course, you and I pick up the tab.

Thanks, Mike Herron