Solarpunk

Thanks for mentioning the last 30 minutes, but for additional clarity, there is a fake ending 30 minutes before the actual ending. Please watch those last 30 minutes!

I will always upvote technology connections, I have watched so many videos of his about things I would have thought i couldn't care less about and enjoyed them all!

Great video. Completely breaks down the argument. You already knew this of you had been paying attention. Oil/gas for electricity generation in any form is DOA. It is insanely more expensive than solar + battery.

Not to mention destructive to the environment and politically fraught with issues.

To think if our government went all in it could provide dirt cheap limitless energy that would not cause lung disease or wars is staggering.

A technology connections video with a 30 minite rant??
watches video
oh.

As someone not from the US, I can't say how much I appreciate the last part of his video. As much as I understand why YouTubers want to "keep politics out of entertainment", it's disappointing and makes me lose interest in some US content because it seems like they are ignoring what's going on around them.

And about the batteries, that's unfortunately an argument I sometimes hear from skeptics. "What are we going to do with all those batteries?" they ask. I explain that they can mostly be recycled and like to ask what are we going to do with all the CO2 in the air, but apparently it's different. Ironically one of those persons is my father, that has a cabin with a solar system that I installed for him. He originally bought a generator but since it's very noisy to run only for some lights, he prefers using the battery bank powered by a few solar panels on the roof. I'd show him this video but he doesn't speak English and it's probably a lost cause anyway.

We can only hope that at least a few people can be influenced by this video; both parts.

That rant at the end really sums up my feelings as a Midwestern leftist. Hell the whole thing does honestly. But you treat people right, you make prudent decisions, and you treat labor with dignity and respect.

I also really respect him for accepting when something that had been obvious to him (the value proposition of solar and electrification) turned out to have not been obvious to others so he cut the snark and explained his reasoning. It's an admirable display of character. But also, yeah it had been obvious to me as well.

Probably not my favorite video of his, but definitely rhe one I respect the most

Just when I thought I couldn't like him more, he goes and drops this gigabased rant.

TC for U.S president honestly

That last 30 minutes earned a new Patreon subscription. I hope this starts a trend.

Sometimes I've been feeling like I'm the weird one for caring about other people and the shit that's been going on. It's really nice to see someone as angry as I am.

I have been watching his videos for years with great enthusiasm.

If I ever meat him, it won’t be a handshake. That rant at the end deserves a hug. I love that antifascist energy that came pouring off him.

Anyone willing to share a tl;dw?

EDIT: Okay so I watched the video and here's a tl;dw which by necessity will lack a lot of detail and nuance. The video is in two parts.

The first part, an hour long, is about the slam dunk viability of solar panels as an energy source. In general, but most particularly in comparison to fossil fuel. The presenter underscores the real, deeper meaning of renewable energy sources and addresses many arguments made against solar power especially when it comes to scaling it up and in regards to its ecological impact. ngl, it's pretty jaw dropping, even if I already knew most of this.

I was increasingly frustrated in the first part because I wanted to shout Do You Get Why This Is Not Happening? Do You Get Why This Renewable Energy Future Is Not Happening. So I was relieved to see that he does get it.

The second part, about 30 minutes long, comes after a quick faux end credits. In this portion, he "goes there" and lays out not only why we are not moving into this future we could have, that is already here for us to have (to wit, money interests) but broadens into a reflection and indictment about the overall situation currently in the U.S.A. While dipping into partisan politics, he elucidates his personal operating principle and shows how it is a throughline into that topic. He did it in a way that pulled no punches while remaining, at least IMO, respectful

"That's it. That's the end of the video. Don't look at the timestamp, don't--"

*Always Sunny music*

Alec Gets Radicalized

Not finished it yet but it annoys me so much that for some reason it is VASTLY cheaper for me to buy a briefcase or two full of batteries for my house than it is for the same to be done in bulk at the scale of the grid.

Just batteries would cut my energy costs to about a third of their current rate by charging them at cheaper off peak prices. Isn't it insane that this is a feature of the current energy market?

undersells the advantage of solar over corn ethanol land use by a lot. At least 2x. Excluding high energy/equipment cost of fermenting ethanol, overstating mileage, and understating EV mileage. The point of ethanol is purely to pay farmers for useless work, but they can make far more with less work from solar. Corn farmers in US have lost money for 4 consecutive years. Excluding land costs, their costs is $650/acre/year, excluding their time/labour. Cashflow per acre $97 @ $4/bushel. At 2.5 hours/day for $30/hour, profit before rent-equivalent drops to $22/acre

In Nebraska, solar costs $1/watt to install (before recent permitting BS). China costs $0.50/w (no tariffs, cheaper construction services/equipment). An acre in Nebraska can hold 400kw of solar, and produce 630k kwh/year (edit: correction). It breaks even at 5c/kwh with 5% financing of whole installation (with system paid off in 25 years, even though it keeps producing) including $4000 O&M costs (high, because its washing dust and leaves 1-2 times per week). Every 1c/kwh revenue higher is $6300/acre profit,

Since ethanol is just a gift to farmers/rural land owners. Giving them 2%/financing rate as the gift and 4c/kwh in revenue is the same profit per acre, and at 5c/kwh, massively higher ($6300) profit. For US car drivers, instead of paying $0.12/mile (a 25mpg gasoline car will use 5.4 gallons ethanol/100 miles at $2.20/gallon). 18c/kwh charging for EV means $0.05/mile. Massive cost reduction already, but tariffs and other BS removal can provide significantly more value for farmers and drivers.

Ooh nice! Does he have other videos like this or is it all computers and stuff?

I know it's not the main point of his video, but I really wish he'd looked into the CapEx vs OpEx stuff a bit more.

For example, when talking about how much fuel his car uses in its lifetime vs. the cost of buying solar panels, he makes it clear that the solar panels are a better investment than buying gasoline. But, what he doesn't talk about is the difficulty for a lot of people in coming up with the money up-front to make that investment. Especially if you're poor, finding $25 per week to put gas in your car is easier than spending $3000 up front to put solar panels on your house. I know later he makes the argument that it might not even make sense to put solar panels on your house. But, that up front cost is also there for buying an electric vehicle vs. buying a car with an ICE (fuck ICE). The Nissan Cube he showed had a starting price of $18k when it was last available new in 2014. The Ioniq 5 starts at double that, at more than $36k. As far as I can tell, you can't get a new electric car for less than $30k, whereas the cheapest gas cars are only $23k or so.

A big reason for the status quo is that paying small amounts constantly is possible when you're poor, but paying a big up front cost to go electric isn't. What's worse (and goes with the last half hour of his video), is that we're in this situation because the fossil fuel companies keep getting subsidies, whereas any subsidies for electric cars or photovoltaic panels keeps getting shut down.

Also, I know it's an American channel so it has to use things like "gallons", but please when talking about energy, use Joules, not "kilowatt hours".

Fell asleep an hour into his last night, didn't expect it to be that long, but I am looking forward to finishing it.