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Solar will get too cheap to connect to the power grid. (climate.benjames.io)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I fear for induced demand. If electricity is cheap, why build more efficiently? Why not do bitcoin mining or AI training?

It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't plenty of places around the world that could desperately use solar panels, that are building fossil fuel infrastructure instead. Climate change is a global problem, so the obsession with getting your individual emissions down to zero is selfish and sometimes even detrimental to the climate if "your emissions" don't include the cost of manufacturing and limited availability.

We should be sending solar panels to the developing world as fast as humanly possible, not making electricity so cheap in California that multinationals can open up a couple more data centers.

[–] repungnant_canary 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

We should be sending solar panels to the developing world as fast as humanly possible

More of addendum than criticism - sending random stuff to developing countries is one of the problems. Solar panels need proper infrastructure and maintenance. Instead of sending them for the west to feel good, we should rather empower governments of those countries to take their own initiative, build infrastructure, train people and make the panels very affordable for them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

sending random stuff to developing countries is one of the problems.

Relevant Video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HpjbkQr0JAE