points by cucumber3732842 3 days ago | 0 comments
We're barreling toward a point where above a certain wealth level and below a certain population density individuals can get all their energy from the sun, store it with batteries you get in the mail from Temu/Amazon/Alibaba and connect it all together with stuff you can buy from a Home Improvement store. All done unilaterally. Very hard to sink the claws of regulation into that except after the fact (unpopular). That is a future that too many people would be happy to sacrifice a lot of pollution to prevent.
So I think the pivot you're talking about, which I agree with eventually happen, will be offset in at least significant part.
[–] chickenbig 2 days ago
[–] verall 2 days ago
You can still backup to a large propane or natgas tank which many rural homes already have.
[–] cucumber3732842 2 days ago
>Good luck storing that energy in batteries through the winter.
I think solar will be cheap enough it'll be more like you need to over-provision the panels and just have storage for a week of cloudy days.
[–] chickenbig 2 days ago
> just have storage for a week of cloudy days.
1 week of storage that is cycled perhaps once or twice a year. 30 year lifetime, say, so 60 cycles in its lifetime. $50/kWh so perhaps $1/kWh for two (presumably cold and dark) weeks a year.
Good luck storing that energy in batteries through the winter. Having a portion of $50/kWh batteries that cycle once a year results in pretty high energy costs. At some point non-battery storage (e.g. generators running on diesel) take over.
Of course, if people are willing to go totally off-grid then good luck to them.