[timgebrally]

I have solar on my house and in IL we get paid via "net metering": https://www.citizensutilityboard.org/illinois-net-metering/ . The idea is you size a system for your annual energy consumption, and then you don't pay for electricity for the year.

If you sold the power back for real-time pricing you'd need a much larger system than your annual consumption. Net metering basically lets you sell the power back at a retail price, not a wholesale price.

[samkater]

From what I understand there is a lot of variation in providers. As I understand SDGE's Net Metering policy(https://www.sdge.com/residential/solar/getting-started-with-...), you sell back power at retail prices only for the current month's billing cycle. Excess energy created within a billing cycle is "true-upped" at wholesale prices which can be applied to other month's billing cycles.

I would also be curious in how the Texas case works. Especially if the grid is down, would it be able to accept the energy you are producing?

[bluGill]

The rules in Illinois are you net meter for the year. If you make more than you use in a year that is free power for the utility. If you want a different deal you need a contract with the utility (In general you need to be in the millions of dollars/year range to be of interest). In Texas it is more complex as each provider can give you a different deal for residential systems.

When the grid is down you can't sell power back. The whole system shuts down. Though if you have a whole house battery backup you can use that instead of the grid (if it is built for it - solar gets weird if you aren't using exactly as much power as you make so you need something to use or make up the difference).