I think these alternate energy and reverse metering ideas are fine but the utility still needs the same amount of capacity as they always did if they want reliability.
Do we really want to depend on harry homeowner to maintain his "plant" and be as reliable as the PoCo? When you have a cloud going across the city the PoCo will need to come up with a bunch of megawatts immediately, then be ready to drop it offline as soon as the cloud passes. How can that capacity ever pay for itself? The fuel itself is just a fraction of the total electric bill.
