[adgjlsfhk1]

If you can make 4 hours of power a day completely free, industry shifts massively. Rather than making a $1m, 90% efficient machine that operates 24/7, you can make a $50k, 20% efficient machine that you turn off when there isn't sun.

[cturner]

We are talking about a form of power that is not free. Solar panels and installation have initial costs and refresh costs. Your 90%/20% notes are a hypothetical, and may apply to some settings, but I expect they will be niche. People want to heat their homes, and boil kettles and run webservers.

I have no problem with aesthetics like *punk. But when these aesthetics influence public policy we end up with dysfunction, like countries that have lots of electric vehicles being powered by new coal power plants. The original post said our era will be looked down on for not covering buildings with solar panels. I don’t think that is correct.

[adgjlsfhk1]

solar isn't free but it is the cheapest form of electricity we have (LCOE), and it's cost fell by a factor of 4 in the past decade. people absolutely want to hear their homes and boil water, but both of those are energy demands that are easy to time shift. any reasonably built home in the past decade is insulated well enough that you can only heat it during the day and keep it at a comfortable temperature. similarly, hot water tanks can be heated hours in advance when there's plenty of spare electricity. this obviously doesn't apply to all forms of energy demand, but heating (air and water) is the majority of consumer demand and is easily shiftable.