I have been a fan of YouTuber Alec at Technology Connections for quite some time now, and I expect more than a few of you have been, too. For those who don’t know him, he’s a 30-something who looks at aspects of technology he finds interesting, ranging from how pinball machines work to why heat pumps are the most efficient way to heat and cool our homes.
He has made 227 videos over the last ten years, and has more than three million subscribers.
He just posted a video about photovoltaic solar panels, pointing out that they are now the least expensive way to generate power. His main point is that the country and the world should be moving rapidly to an entirely solar- and wind-based energy system and addresses the mostly disingenuous arguments against that.
For instance, the claim that solar farms take up too much land. If all of the land currently required by law to be used to raise corn for ethanol to be added to gasoline was converted to solar farms, it would generate almost twice the electricity needed by the whole country! He makes very good points countering other common objections.
This is all covered in the first hour of the video. The last half hour contains a brilliant political rant that I posted about in P&E.
I was listening to a program on (American) public radio the other day that said that in Germany, solar panels are cheaper than wooden privacy fencing, so if you need to put up a fence, you might just use solar panels for it so it’s generating power while providing privacy.
I am one of Alec’s subscribers, and that video appeared in my YouTube feed recently. It’s just that it’s an hour and a half long, and I haven’t found the time to watch it yet. I do intend to watch it eventually, but I need to find a time when I have a large block of time free.
When I saw the video go up I was extremely worried. I just installed solar, and I was afraid that he was going to explain why that was a bad idea, and be right about it. Other than the capex, I can’t think of any negatives for solar, which is why I was concerned. What might I have missed when making the decision?
I wish I’d seen his video on heat pumps two years earlier…
Anyway, no worries, solar is about as close to the “free energy” dream as we’ll ever get.
What’s sad is that we were this close to seeing widespread EV + solar + storage adoption, maybe even with reshored battery production. Then overnight that dream died, and it’s back to fracking we go!
Oh well, at least China is still plowing ahead. The world moves on without us.
