World News
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News [email protected]
Politics [email protected]
World Politics [email protected]
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
view the rest of the comments
The grid needs to be decentralized. More solar on rooftops and neighborhood backup batteries. This would help level out demand.
In other parts of the world this is fairly affordable. In the USA its astronomically higher. I speak from firsthand experience. When installed its wonderful, but is really pricey up-front, and just a small fraction of Americans are both homeowners, and can afford to buy these systems. The Inflation Reduction Act brings the price down from 10x the cost of other nations to just 7x the cost. Its an improvement, but not enough to make these systems widely available to all household budgets.
Not sure what the price is elsewhere, but I got 6.4 kW solar panels and a 10kW battery backup last year, and the cost was $33k USD. This was in U.S. Midwest (Colorado) and with a local (not National) Solar provider.
I paid cash to avoid the 6% rate loan and additional fees, and I received a $9k tax credit for it this year, bringing the total cost down to $24k. I think this is an expense beyond many Americans, especially since this system could take over a decade to pay for itself, if it does at all.
No point here, just figured I’d point it out so people are aware of the cost. And bear in mind, this is a small system, in a small (just over 1k sq/ft) home.
If you do it yourself it can be so much cheaper, For example with a goal of about 20k spent This bundle gets you 12Kw of inverter output and 30Kwh of batteries for 11k. Then just grab two Of these solar panel pallets for 28Kw of panels. Or Alternatively go smaller with just one pallet and save a bit. Then ofc you will get the 30% federal tax credit on top of everything
Not everybody is going to want to do it themselves I get that, it's actually very easy and straightforward I posted another comment here up above that goes into more detail but honestly just about anyone could learn to do it it's not advanced electrical work by any stretch of the imagination.
Not really. That likely depends entirely on where you live. In my county you're required to have electrical and construction permits for the work, and the install must be carried out by solar installers with at least one licensed roofing professional and the electrical portion by a licensed electrician. You also can't connect it back to the grid for net-metering without further inspection by the county once the work is completed. Part of the cost was all the licensing and permitting, as well as submitting the official install plan to the county for approval.
That's not something I would undertake myself. Not only would I not be able to connect to the grid, but my home would be uninsurable.
Not region specific, but this is relevant: https://www.itekenergy.com/installation/installing-solar-panels-without-a-permit/
Off-grid inverters bypass a LOT of that. And i should have been more clear on no backfeed. I would never recommend backfeed tbh. It comes with insane amounts of red tape, as you've noted, the equipment is also much more expensive for grid tie.
Off-grid inverters are basically a backup UPS on steroids. They accept grid as an input but don't feed back to it. They have far less regulation on their installations. Some places indeed you will still have some but usually you can get away with just having the final install inspected by a master electrician.
That's fair. For me, I don't have enough roof space or space for battery to do a fully off-grid system. I would have liked to, but I've got mountains to the west and I only get good sun on the southeast facing side of the house, so unless I do a porch expansion and battery capacity to size ratio improves, grid-tied was my best option.
My power company is a not-for-profit co-op and offers 1:1 net-metering, as well as reduced costs for off-peak hours for solar and heat pump users. I've managed my energy use to the point I'm at net-zero usage (101.5% production to my usage), but there are low production days where I have to tap the grid and high production days where I produce way more than I draw.
Edit - other considerations as well, e.g. - solar installer guarantees the work for 15 years (panels) and 10 years (battery) and will fix any issues free (if they're still in business, if not it's guaranteed by Solaredge given professional installation). And Solaredge tends to not work with individuals. Honestly, I did look into self-installing and IIRC I would have saved maybe $9k or $10k doing a DIY install, but given the tools I would need, knowledge and resources to do it right, time required to do it alone, and the lack of grid access/backfeed... it was very much worth the extra cost to me. And that additional cost was technically refunded to me when I filed taxes.