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I can recall our neighbors house in the 90s having a solar hot water heater on the roof that was installed sometime in the early 80s most likely to take advanta
by UncleOxidant 5y ago
I can recall our neighbors house in the 90s having a solar hot water heater on the roof that was installed sometime in the early 80s most likely to take advantage of the tax incentives before they went away. By the late 90s they had disconnected it because it was leaking. Whenever I'd see it on their roof I'd be reminded that at one point (in the Carter Administration) we had much better policy towards alternative energy then we had had since. A few years later probably around 2000 they had the unit completely removed since it wasn't doing anything anyway. It took until the Obama admin for most of those incentives to come back.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- zbrozek 5y agoThe house I bought had solar thermal panels (from 1975!) to heat pool water. I took them off last year and put photovoltaic panels up instead. That ~zeroed my electric bill and I'm starting to electrify to make use of the low-cost energy. First up is my gas pool heater.
- oceanplexian 5y agoI’m not sure I would agree that we had a better policy towards alternative energy since policy at that time set nuclear energy back decades. And on a side note, I’m not sure why we keep coming back around to low density energy sources like solar? I get that modern day photovoltaics are pretty amazing, and can work for very wealthy people who own detached homes. But they are bounded by the laws of physics and this was well known even in Jimmy Carter’s time. We can’t power cities full of apartment buildings with millions people who want modern technology and a modern standard of living. Not without covering the Earth in silicon. And that is the most environmentally destructive idea I’ve ever heard of.