Is the Trend Toward Distributed Solar Good for the Power Utilities?

Here’s a good article that asks if the coming boom in distributed solar is good for the utilities.  The way I see it, the short answer is an emphatic No.  Utility bills (i.e., their revenues) fall, and the need for storage rises as the predictability of load falls.

Sounds like a big fat loser to me, given the way utilities are regulated today.  All that means, however, is that we need to rethink these laws that have been in place for 100 years, and begin to compensate the power companies for doing what we want from them now, i.e., selling us less energy (as we conserve and implement efficiency solutions), and selling us a greater component from renewable resources.