In other parts of the world this is fairly affordable. In the USA its astronomically higher. I speak from firsthand experience. When installed its wonderful, but is really pricey up-front, and just a small fraction of Americans are both homeowners, and can afford to buy these systems. The Inflation Reduction Act brings the price down from 10x the cost of other nations to just 7x the cost. Its an improvement, but not enough to make these systems widely available to all household budgets.
local government = revenue from taxes. If the home owners don’t have the money to buy solar, being taxed enough by the local government to pay for solar isn’t going to work either.
power company = nearly all are either co-ops (owned by the consumers) where you’d get the same problem with taxing, or private companies which are for-profit driven industries.
If you’re actually interested in affecting change, you’re going to need to do more than say “someone else should pay for it”. Even more if you’re saying “something I don’t support is getting money, and I want that money to go to the thing I support instead”. Unless you happen to be an authoritarian dictator where your will is law, you have to work within the system if you want change. So far I’m not seeing what you’re posting as a path that will become reality.
If I’ve mistaken your intentions and you just want to have someone else solve the big problem without addressing any of the smaller problems that creates, then I supposed your work is done. Carry on.
Its not just his opinion: its pretty well established that we need to develop this for our future
I agree we need to develop it. What is unrealistic is saying “thing X should happen and someone else should pay for it exclusively”. That’s what will keep this a pipe dream instead of turning it into actual reality.
In other parts of the world this is fairly affordable. In the USA its astronomically higher. I speak from firsthand experience. When installed its wonderful, but is really pricey up-front, and just a small fraction of Americans are both homeowners, and can afford to buy these systems. The Inflation Reduction Act brings the price down from 10x the cost of other nations to just 7x the cost. Its an improvement, but not enough to make these systems widely available to all household budgets.
Rooftop solar panels should be offered for free by either the local government or the power company at this point.
local government = revenue from taxes. If the home owners don’t have the money to buy solar, being taxed enough by the local government to pay for solar isn’t going to work either.
power company = nearly all are either co-ops (owned by the consumers) where you’d get the same problem with taxing, or private companies which are for-profit driven industries.
I’m wondering how many residential solar panels our current oil and gas subsidies could fund. Wishful thinking I suppose.
If you’re actually interested in affecting change, you’re going to need to do more than say “someone else should pay for it”. Even more if you’re saying “something I don’t support is getting money, and I want that money to go to the thing I support instead”. Unless you happen to be an authoritarian dictator where your will is law, you have to work within the system if you want change. So far I’m not seeing what you’re posting as a path that will become reality.
If I’ve mistaken your intentions and you just want to have someone else solve the big problem without addressing any of the smaller problems that creates, then I supposed your work is done. Carry on.
Its not just his opinion: its pretty well established that we need to develop this for our future
I agree we need to develop it. What is unrealistic is saying “thing X should happen and someone else should pay for it exclusively”. That’s what will keep this a pipe dream instead of turning it into actual reality.