Technology Connections

This is correct. Any candidate cynically “triangulating” on trans kids is a non-starter, and now is the time to say so. There’s still so much time to advance candidates that DON’T suck.

This week, we had Alec of @techconnectify.bsky.social on the show and it was an absolute delight. Give it a listen!

The longer I live the more evidence I gather that people in charge of software decisions need to not be.

I don't appreciate devices which scold me for improper shutdown when just about the only reason that ever happens is a power outage or blip.

Looked over my shoulder

This isn't true and you've been lied to.

Are you aware of how many acres of land are used to grow corn and what we do with that corn?

I'd look into that and run the numbers on how much energy could be captured via PV if we stopped growing corn to fuel cars in the form of ethanol.

Oh wait, you were the person who said the thing about "not enough lithium in the Earth's crust" as if A) that were true and B) that's the only way we know how to store electrical energy and it will forever be the only way we can do that, weren't you?

Is there some magical property of solar panels which means that power switches don't exist or something?

It's almost like we have to bring back the term "solid state" or something.

Look. This is my final reply to you because this is incredibly tedious.

You are imagining everything about what I know and understand. And you are imagining I'm making arguments which I am not. And you keep arguing against those arguments which I am not making.

Have fun out there.

Well, there have been plenty of recent studies which show that even including energy storage solar is the cheapest source of energy.

So, I can't really see what specific things you want to claim is inaccurate about my initial post.

And if we had a federal government that wasn't freaking bonkers we would have support to make these investments *without* making ratepayers suffer.

Ah. Somehow you read my initial post as if I'm trying to get people to buy their own photovoltaic systems and not simply explaining that solar panels do not require an input of fuel and that is why they create the cheapest source of electricity.

You're going way deeper than I ever meant to.

Solar energy will just keep getting cheaper to deploy and because it *requires no fuel* the rather obvious course of action which *is already happening* is to overbuild generation and charge grid-scale batteries during the day.

I don't really care about personal PV systems in this context.

Another thing?

If you actually knew who I am and what I advocate for, you would know that I have a lot of issues with the way we do photovoltaic solar installations right now, from predatory installers to unsustainable reimbursement schemes for grid-ties systems.

But the writing is on the wall.

lol, I know all about this stuff man.

And if you're not against solar, what the fuck are you doing with this conversation?

Maybe this is one of those cases where you haven't looked into the actual costs per kW lately. Lotta people still thinking it's 15 years ago.

Hey, just so you know, I'm not telling anybody that they should install their own photovoltaic systems.

I actually have some pretty big hang-ups about that, especially how we reimburse people for grid-tied systems.

Elaborate on how that's only part of it, please.

And also, for what it's worth, there's a big difference between utility scale, solar and individual solar installations such as your own.

All those solar farms are popping up around the place because of the fact that the fuel is free.

...you do understand, right, that the efficiency of a solar panel is a measure of how much sunlight (which is free!) it can convert to electricity?

The efficiency numbers only look low if you don't understand that. I'll gladly take 20% efficient free solar over 100% efficient costly gas.

Okay.

No, you.

It's almost like the state of technology is actually improving! And that 15 years was a long time ago!

Yes. This isn't contradicting what I wrote.

I would submit that there are vested interests which are trying to convince people that solar energy is a lot more complicated than it is and the status quo is a lot simpler than it is.

But whatever.

I believe it should be mind-numbingly obvious to anyone who understands things like basics of investment, economics, costs of labor, resource extraction, and mechanical complexity that solid-state devices which have a one-time cost for 20+ years of energy production will win out on cost.

That is the thing that I am hung up on.

We can have as many conversations as you would like about dispatchability, energy storage, environmental costs of energy storage, etc etc.

But the reason we are trying to crack that nut is, again, the energy produced costs nothing.

Well, there is indeed one thing that is simple about this: You manufacture the panel one time, then it gets deployed, then it generates free energy whenever the sun is up.

And we now know, even accounting for energy storage, solar is the cheapest form of energy. Because: see above.

Please point out where I am saying this is simple.

Right, but it has been obvious for a long time that we would solve these problems.

And, at least to me, the whole "The produced energy is free" should have been impetus enough to move mountains to solve them.