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Easy-to-use solar panels are coming, but utilities are trying to delay them (www.kuow.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago by grimpy@lemmy.myserv.one to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net

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“Easy-to-install solar panels that plug into a regular outlet are getting attention just as Americans are worried about rising energy costs. That's because these plug-in or balcony solar panels start shaving off part of a homeowner's or renter's utility bill right away.

"”A year ago, nobody was talking about this," says Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, a California nonprofit group that advocates for plug-in solar. The panels are already popular in Germany, where more than 1.2 million of the small plug-in systems are registered with the German government.”

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[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 37 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Articles like this are what make me hate where we are as a society right now.

Are utilities trying to delay them or is the industry that makes these panels paying "news" sources to write articles to help ram the products through and bypass the standard approval process that makes sure they are safe? Maybe a bit of both.

Was this written by a human or an LLM? Is my distrust of everything I read a side effect of the corruption rampant in our system or is it the goal? Maybe a bit of both.

Edit: I see they are part of the NPR network, so maybe more believable and less likely to be slop.

[–] ravenaspiring@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 weeks ago

Yea, the cognitive load required to evaluate and engage both on the article, as well as politically is so high that ignorance and a shrug seems normal.

I am not sure that a commune in the boonies is the answer, but it certainly seems more appealing then the total system collapse we seem to be apart of lately.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Consider the source.

We've basically always had to do this for decades, and kinda didn't. The internet marched on without caring about source credibility too much. It's just that the downsides are now very apparent.

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Always had to consider the source? Sure.

The problem is that, unlike in those decades before, there are little to no consequences for corruption. Each year has also seen a further abandoning of long term considerations in favor of maximizing profits for the next quarter. We also have things like vulture capitalism, where legal financial situations that don't really make sense can still be extremely profitable as long as they are comfortable destroying an entire company and all of its workers...and they are. It just feels different these days.

Also, unlike in those decades before, the time it takes to produce content was along the same order of magnitude as time it takes to consume it. Today. A website with an entire "body of work" can be fabricated overnigh... or a legitimate source can have its entire staff of writers fired and replaced overnight with an LLM trained on their body of work, producing content with a convincing likeness, at least on the surface.

I just feel like there are so many bad actors and people acting in bad faith now...and they have to spend very little effort to do it and are unlikely to face consequences if they succeed.