For proponents of government-backed renewable energy, utilities are little more than a midwife to a battery-charged future. The reason is that solar and wind power are intermittent, with plenty of seasonal and time-of-day variation that doesn’t match the needs of consumers at any given moment.

One solution tried by states has been net-metering, which forces utilities to purchase energy from solar consumers at artificially high rates. This comes at the expense of other, poorer, utility consumers.