• MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We are 90% there already. In many states, solar panels and usage have extra taxes. Most solar installations are grid tied and electricity sale prices to the company are fixed at a small fraction of their sale prices from those companies. Worse, if power goes out, you can’t use solar to stay electrified because electricity would leak out and potentially electrocute nearby line men.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Worse, if power goes out, you can’t use solar to stay electrified because electricity would leak out and potentially electrocute nearby line men.

      Your info is a bit out of date. With a single battery you can use nearly any solar system to generate and consume that energy during a grid outage. With a couple brands of gear (such as Enphase IQ8) you don’t even need any battery to generate and consume energy from solar during a grid outage. The term to look for for batteryless is called “self grid forming”.

    • QueriesQueried@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Worse, if power goes out, you can’t use solar to stay electrified because electricity would leak out and potentially electrocute nearby line men.

      Has this… really ever been true? We’ve had gas powered generators people can plug into their homes for a rather long time now, and they would be doing the exact same thing as solar installations.

      It depends on where you are mainly, but I do believe the kit that prevents what you describe, is functionally mandatory to have for solar. Not certain on that, and it definitely still depends on locale, but I haven’t seen any without that lockout in a loooonging time.

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes any professionally installed solar kit is going to have that liability prevention included with the design. That person is just spouting bullshit from some half-learned information.

        I built my own solar offgrid power station, and I didn’t install that protection, but it’s also a completely off the grid power source so it doesn’t matter. I installed a dedicated ground and breaker for it and it works as a standalone power source.