A Warren Buffett company is in control of Nevada's legacy energy utility, while Elon Musk is behind SolarCity, a company that designs and installs solar systems for no money down, contingent upon a 20-year comittment.
Federal subsidies help offset the price of initial installation. Federal regulations also allow homeowners to sell back their excess energy to the grid. In Nevada, the power utility is required to buy that power back at the same rate they charge their cusomers -- which has utilities like Buffett's NV Energy lobbying for change.
From the article at Bloomberg Business:
All this has enraged independent, free-market, and environmentally conscious Nevadans. All day on Jan. 13 people enter the hearing room to give the sole commissioner an earful... employees from SolarCity and a competitor, Sunrun, explain that they’d been let go because the commission’s recent ruling killed their companies’ business in the state. Some of the roughly 18,000 customers who have already put solar panels on their roofs say the officials have rigged the game against the players. One homeowner threatens a $1 billion class-action lawsuit. Another compares NV Energy to King George III.
