it also gets little attention, but the IRA has been a stupefyingly successful bill and is driving clean energy investment far beyond what its proponents hoped for
the clean energy future still might not get here in time to stave off much of the damage but it’s coming faster than we thought
What's kind of amazing is that we're actually living through a huge technology revolution where our entire power grid is being replaced by solar panels and battery storage and you hear less about it in the press than you did about the totally fake "tech" of NFTs
I obviously understand the progressive anger at the admin over Gaza, but the fact is we’ve never done better than this admin on climate and labor and it will likely be a while before we do this well again
The amount of new construction I'm supporting as a GIS analyst at a large utlity because of Build Back Better funding is substantial.
I've had to model 2 new substations in the last 2 month to go along with all of the automated distribution stuff I normally support.
I see that somebody else posted a gift link in response, but you can often find them in the gift link feed:
bsky.app/profile/did:...
Scroll down, far enough to be before the publication of the article, then use control-F or ⌘-F to search for the headline
Pretty sure that's what happened; I posted one yesterday.
bsky.app/profile/davi...
And one other person posted one to the non-paywalled 'Read Online' link that gets emailed out with the newsletter.
Yup, any time I have a yearning to quit doomscrolling and feel good about the news I skooch over to my GreenSky feed. It's very bright over there, almost all the time these days.
Bacon-Davis means everyone gets prevailing wage to do this work, additionally. If a project gets 1 penny of fed money, even Right to Work scum states have *document* and pay what union guys in the same trade are paid
It's a bfd
Unironically, if you loathe Biden, and can't think of any other reason to vote for him, this vs. Trump's 40M oil haul this week should lock it down. Any equivocating after that and you're obviously just in it for the thrills.
It's also very funny to mention that renewables like rooftop solar panels would make the US power grid much more resilient in the event of a large-scale near-peer war, and then watch the classic enemies of renewables struggle to invent reasons why that's actually bad.
While I hate that the US system to encourage basically anything is tax credits, it's still true that the tax credits were a significant factor in my getting solar panels last year.
We're at the point where it is economically rational to have residential solar power in *Michigan*. It's just wild.
yeah tax incentives are great. unless you do not have the money to put in in the first place. :/
i'm glad you were able to put them in tho! that's cool!
In a year or three I might end up getting a house battery, given that my utility buys my power for 1/4 what I pay them for the same amount.
I'm holding off replacing my car as long as I can -- it's a hybrid from 2006 and still getting ~38 mpg -- but it's possible the next one might be full EV.
Similar on the car front. Our cars are about 10 years old (1 hybrid and 1 non) with dreams of an EV future.
Thinking of solar panels in WI - but probably need to get the roof replaced first, right?
I'm working on an IRA-related software project right now. A lot of people are not understanding the scope of this bill. Funding that used to be restricted to low-income households is now available for everyone to make their homes more efficient. This is unlocking HUGE energy $ savings for everyone.
Sweet we're on track for replacing our dirty energy with clean energy.
Tech: Yeah but what if we turned back on all that dirty energy production and used to to run massive lying machines?
Part of it is also china having invested in r&d and production. I bought 7kwh worth of lithium iron phosphate cells for my rv and it was like 800 dollars including international shipping and the bms. It was cheaper than conventional lead acid batteries before you consider the much longer lifespan.
Not to mention a fraction of the weight and size. Idk where I would fit the equivalent 12 6 volt golf cart batteries and they would weigh over 700 pounds. Modern batteries are incredible.
This is very true. My practice area is *exclusively* IRA clean energy tax credits right now because there is massive interest, not just from energy companies, but from cities and towns switching to zero carbon energy for all sorts of things thanks to direct pay incentives in the IRA. It's beautiful.
