I’ll note that the author of the article provided significant input into the drafting of what became the Inflation Reduction Act.
I’m cranky but yeah that’s easy to do for a wealthy home-owning car-owning Californian. Would love to do what this person has done but I’ll never own a home so 🤷♂️
100% energy independence is the dream.
As an aside, utilities/private companies shouldn’t be allowed to influence energy policy. Since they’re trying to maximize profits they have a disincentive to support things that would be good for the public like residential solar and cleaner but capital intensive upgrades to infrastructure.
I don’t think I’m trying to go there. You get better reliability more cheaply when transmission can move electricity from where the sun shines or the wind blows to where people are.
Wind turbines are also a lot more cost-effective when they’re bigger, so things like community ownership of a few big turbines is a better choice than each household owning their own little one.
I agree, something like the municipal internet model for energy would be a great alternative. To clarify, I think energy independence will only be a viable option for the masses if storage technology advances enough to allow for days/weeks of backup power, but one can still dream.