[benjiro]

Batteries are dirt cheap when you take in account the fuel prices over the generators lifespan. These days we can buy like 50Kwh battery's for barely 6000 Euro. That is like 1/10 what this used to cost not even 5 years ago.

And no, not the entire world lives in the US, where people get gasoline/diesel for 1/3 or less, then what we pay in Europe.

I do not understand why solar installations are so expensive in the US, where we get installations often for 1/4 to even 1/6 from the prices i see quoted in the US. There is a reason why seeing solar on every third or forth house is not uncommon here.

A generator (in Europe) is good for those days where you get no solar energy and are totally off-grid living (or do not wamt to use electricity providers anymore with their stupid fixed costs).

[senectus1]

>I do not understand why solar installations are so expensive in the US

the Biden administration has recently raised these tariffs, including doubling the tariff rate on solar cells from China to 50%

Tariffs are magic.. they make america so rich!

/s

[benjiro]

Looked up the numbers:

Trump initial 25% Tarif (30 down to 25), then Bidden up to 50%, then Trump up to 60% ... It adds up fast.

Europe had import tariffs from 2013 and those expired in September 2023. That is around the same time most countries stopped with subsidies for solar.

The ironic part is, that this flood of cheap Chinese panels, batteries, etc is a major boom to our energy independence as those installations easily last 20+ years. And given our neighbor to the easy issue, energy independence is high on the list.

The US does not have this issue with their gas/oil rich area's (and probably $$$ to politicians).

[senectus1]

I love how I'm getting downvoted here :-D

Tariffs DONT make America rich, they make imported products more expensive to buy.

Then if and only if, they get so expensive that its cheaper to make them locally, they start industry to make them locally.

they're still more expensive than the pre tariff price, but they're now cheaper than the imported product.

I'm not arguing against tariffs.. just stating it like it is. and mocking the statement they current leader keeps repeating incorrectly.