Excellent reply, Pavel.  As for the points you make about net metering, you probably make them even a little big better than the attorneys for Nevada Energy did when the Nevada Public Utility Commission rubber stamped their request to shut down net metering on an immediate basis.

So, let me respond to you and to the attorneys who represented Nevada Energy.  Thousands of Nevada homeowners were in the position, back in 2016, of having taken advantage of a program offered by the existing solar cell providers at that time and in the years preceeding that date and with the kiss of the Pope, so to speak, in that the legislature of Nevada had previously enticed the public to purchase home solar installations at considerable expense to the individual homeowners.  That is where the "Evil" is that you have ascribed to the process of "net metering".  You just shot an arrow at the presumed problem and missed the target.

The merits and demerits of "net metering" are a separate topic and I share some of your thoughts, not all, in regard to the just nature of offering those financial incentives to the public in the first place.  I am not totaly against "net metering" in that it is a subsidy to the individual howme owners who choose to take advantage of a plan, in this case, by the State of Nevada to promote the growth of home solar in a State that has one of the, if not the most, abundant supplies of sunshine in all of the United States. 

The automobile industry has taken subsidies from "the government" for years, the petroleum industry has done the same, the railroads during the 1800's might as well have owned the Congress of the United States, the airlines have done the same... in summary big business has a pattern of not only taking government subsidies but, in fact, fostering those subsidies and seeking them out at local, State and Federal levels through highly paid corporate lobyists who gather at city halls, State legislatures and at the Congress in Washington like flies to the picnic, or more correctly dung beetles to the dung.  

Your favorite Captain of Industry, Elon Musk, has successfully sought and gained millions of dollars in tax relief from the same Nevada Legislature that offered and then, through the rubber stamp of the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, jerked those subsidies back from individual home owners precipitously without any sign of remorse for those gullible homeowners who had committed the single sin of believing the State of Nevada previously when Nevada openly promoted homeowners to take advantage of a ROI for their investment in installing solar energy in their homes.

The problem here, Pavel, and it isn't confined to just Nevada, is that IF a State is going to offer Net Metering in the first place to home owners, then give them the same security in such an offer that the State would give the various Captains of Industry representing huge Corporations that raid regularly the public coffers.

My contention is, that the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, stabbed every existing solar power home owner in the State of Nevada in the back by their arbitrary immediate cessation of net metering.   That is the issue here in Nevada and the same issue in every State that has ever offered Net Metering to its citizenry or that contemplates doing so.  Just be honest with those home owners and don't precipitiously pulll the rug out from under them for adding improvements to theier homes that you promoted for them to do in the first place!

You have seen me use the word "precipitously" in my comments above.  That is the key word from the standpoint of those homeowners here in Nevada who were hoodwinked by the carrot and stick act of the Nevada government.  I remember the arguments presented to the Public Utilities Commission and I corresponded with them myself at the time even though I was not an owner of a home solar system.  I still took the position that it was wrong for them to act in a precipitious manner, not that it was wrong for them to take away the net metering benefit.

My position, and that of most of the homeowners involved, was that we expected that Net Metering would not be something that would live in perpetuity.  We all knew that it had a limited life span and this was the counter position put before the Public Utilities Commission by the homeowners.  What they wanted was a plan to gradually reduce the Net Metering over a period of years so that the huge investment they had made in response to the previous plea by the State of Nevada to invest in home solar would not be a total loss.  They were OK with a gradual reduction and then eventual elimination of Net Metering.  Doing it in that manner would not give truth to the lie that the State of Nevada had previously offered during the time when Nevada promoted solar home installation by sweetening the deal by dangling "Net Metering" in front of Nevada consumers.

OK, I have beaten that dead horse enough.  The result here in Nevada was that the Nevada Public Utilities Commission had to eventually admit that they "made a mistake" and scrap the immediate cessation of Net Metering in favor of a more gradual reduction and elimination plan, but without a huge public outcry by those homeowners snookered by the empty promise of the State of Nevada there would have been no back tracking by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission.  

The point for any homeowner in any state that offers Net Metering is that you need to evaluate your own State's version of the Public Utilities Commission and the trust worthiness of your own State legislature when they do dangle "Net Metering" in front of its citizens.  You must have some ideea of how that State plans to eventually eliminate Net Metering.  

You could supply that same process to the Captains of Industry that make big promises to employ thousands of workers in a State when that State gives them millions of dollars in tax relief bait for luring that company into the State, ala Elon Musk for instance, coming to Nevada.

Just 'sayin.   Thanks for your post, Pavel.  You are right to look at both sides of the picture. I just gave you a different view, that of the snookered Nevada home owners.    Okiedo

PS:  Note to Agoracom.  Yes, I have some comments about politics in this post, however the aim is to show how political decisions can effect vastly a niche market for lithium ion batteries.  You must agree, that as it pertains to alternative energy generation there has to be some method to store the excess energy produced, in the case during the time of daylight hours, so that energy can be used 24 hours a day.   One of the most common methods is through lithium ion batteries as a component of an Energy Storage Unit... thus the link of the above post to the purpose of this Hub:  discussion of events and things that pertain to the future product of Lithium Americas:  lithium!