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points by SugarReflex 4 days ago | 0 comments

Can they do the same thing with fuel prices?

[–] dymk 4 days ago

Solar panels (which continue get cheaper every year) on my house makes charging my low-TCO EV free in 5 years

[–] elmer2 4 days ago

Until you start getting taxed.

[–] dymk 4 days ago

How do you figure that works?

[–] Supermancho 4 days ago

Solar panels added to a grid is not plug and play.

When you're connecting solar to a municipal grid (which is what most homes are connected to), it could theoretically be taxed or even subjected to a tariff. The "added" power (often excess) is monitored for billing credits/payout/other, among other reasons like grid integrity.

[–] crote 4 days ago

Solar panels are literally plug-and-play, though! If your market doesn't have plug-in "balcony solar" yet, it is because your lawmakers are blocking it.

And indeed, they can tax excess solar, but they can't tax the power you use yourself. Backfeed tax gets too high to use the grid as a battery? Buy a home battery, problem solved.

[–] dannyw 4 days ago

You can even buy a small solar panel for ~$10 with positive and negative leads you solder; and power something like a Pi Pico^ directly. It kinda feels like magic.

^Not recommended literally due to brownouts/etc, but a cheap power management IC on a breadboard can solve that. Alternatively, add a battery/etc.

Home solar panels and batteries are just like this except on a bigger scale; and with (hopefully) more QC.

[–] Supermancho 3 days ago

> Solar panels are literally plug-and-play

This is incorrect. Treating solar panels like batteries for specific appliances (or integrated like the panel on a Solocam S220), is not the use case nor is this a discussion about off-grid or microhomes.

I would suggest not making broad statements about what can and can't be taxed in the future.

[–] dymk 4 days ago

Plenty of grids have different sorts of net metering ratios, grid maintenance fees, etc. But it's nothing compared to what you'd be paying taking power off of the grid, and there is a break-even period often measured in single-digit years. I still do not understand the point of what the GP was trying to make w.r.t. "taxes".

[–] InsidiousWombat 3 days ago

Per KM driven. Your EV vendor will gladly use the telemetry to report that to government

[–] cryptonector 3 days ago

Mileage taxes on EVs.

[–] iAMkenough 4 days ago

Voters vote for Republicans that drive up TCO for EVs, like higher annual registration fees.

[–] qwerpy 4 days ago

Strange, I lived in very blue states (WA and CA) and they definitely punish EV owners with large annual surcharges on registrations. To offset “not paying gas tax”. Money is money, red or blue, they will all take as much as they can from you.

[–] scheme271 4 days ago

TBH, roads and highways are paid for by gas tax and it effectively functions as a usage tax. Something similar for EVs wouldn't be too wild.

[–] verdverm 4 days ago

That would likely require innovation in a renewable liquid fuel that can work at scale.

Electrification will drive the demand for oil down, making the overhead more expensive per gallon, and eventually we will largely move off of fossil fuels, though I don't expect completely. It will be many decades due to the turnover times for industrial/commercial transportation systems.

[–] dwattttt 4 days ago

If you make it easy for lots of people to make the fuel, yes. EVs and smaller scale power generation anyone?

[–] YetAnotherNick 4 days ago

Yes if China somehow gets the fuel and subsidize it to sell it for cheaper in the global world, even the gulf state price will go down.