<story><title>California solar power output sometimes exceeds predictions</title><url>http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-electricity-solar/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jessaustin</author><text>I wondered whether TFA would ever get to the cause of this waste, and eventually it did!&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Once state regulators approve new plants or transmission lines, the cost is now built into the amount that the utility can charge electricity users — no matter how much or how little it is used.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh, so &lt;i&gt;that&amp;#x27;s&lt;/i&gt; why they kept building natural gas plants that don&amp;#x27;t get used most of the time! If you&amp;#x27;ve ever been to a PUC meeting, you&amp;#x27;ve seen corruption at its most brazen. &amp;quot;Citizens&amp;#x27; groups&amp;quot; entirely funded by utilities and telcos wait their turn to dutifully read the prepared statements, the commissioners dutifully thank them, and then they go to work with the rubber stamp. It doesn&amp;#x27;t actually matter that power plants get built in a timely fashion or actually operate more than a small percentage of the time, the rate-payers are already on the hook. The only way a utility executive gets a bonus is by saddling the public with CWIP charges, so that&amp;#x27;s what they scheme to do every working day.&lt;p&gt;No coal, gas, or nuclear plant should ever be built by forcing the public to do the job of investors. If investors can&amp;#x27;t be found to support a plant that supposedly will generate for decades, maybe we should listen to the market?&lt;p&gt;[EDIT:] Great article, though, because it tells the whole story, and that seems rare anymore.</text></comment>
<story><title>California solar power output sometimes exceeds predictions</title><url>http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-electricity-solar/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>aeturnum</author><text>Alternative title: Solar power output exceeds most optimistic predictions.&lt;p&gt;It seems like a non-story for a burst-y power source to occasionally produce more power than we need.</text></comment>