Battery prices are collapsing and we are at an inflection point where electric vehicles will soon be more economical to purchase, drive and maintain for a much greater number of people. This is as inevitable as the phaseout of coal.
Solar panels also seems to be on a tipping point
Oh it tipped a few years ago. It’s just still being implemented. There may be less startup to ramping up fossil fuel plants still, but solar is cheaper to build and operate
So I guess what kind of tipping point we’re talking about, I meant we’ll soon be drowning in cheap solar panels, it’s just as you said not yet at capacity.
I looked at adding solar to my house 6-7 years ago and it was going to cost $60k. The return on investment would have taken 25-30 years.
What does it cost these day?
To give you an Australian perspective here are some current indicative prices for solar installations over here. https://www.solarquotes.com.au/panels/cost/
Yeah, I was shopping for lithium on phosphatase leisure batteries maybe two years ago and was looking at spending over £1000 per battery. Now those batteries are not much over £100 and prices still seem to be falling.
What would one use lithium on phosphatase leisure batteries for? I’m not familiar with those
LiFePo (Lithium Iron Phosphate) is heavier than traditional Lithium Ion batteries for the same amount of energy storage, but doesn’t degrade when discharged to zero the way traditional Lithium Ion does.
That looks like autocorrect or text-to-speech mangled ‘lithium iron phosphate’
Well, you know…sometimes you just need a vibrator that can go a continuous month between recharges…
Sodium ion batteries are also supposedly gearing up to be a solid li-ion alternative in the next 2-3 years. Not as energy dense yet but they’re closing the gap.
Fingers crossed that pans out.
Not only that, but lithium sulfur is coming too.
I heard this as well and am sweating the anticipation. They make another breakthrough on density and it’ll blow li-io out of the water, at least for on-site storage. Would be crazy to see backup diesel generators replaced by batteries.
I’d broaden that to a whole host of “green” and “alternative energy” sectors.
All the panic about Chinese “overproduction” of EVs and similar technologies is just China going whole hog on those industries. It’s not an “overproduction” in the traditional sense, where a company produces more than the market will bear and has to sell excess inventory at a loss. China just produces all of this stuff cheaply and at a huge scale.
About 20 years ago the general perception was that EVs were a joke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2HX5wsQVEA Now we have cost effective solar and wind, efficient battery storage, good and cheap EVs and drones, modern heat pumps etc.
I don’t even think all the tariffs will matter in the long run. China is currently adopting all that stuff at a breakneck pace. Their production capacity won’t just go away once they’ve saturated the domestic market and the growing number of countries that have trade agreements with China). At that point, Chinese manufacturers will have no choice but to start actually selling below cost, just so they can clear inventory.
And this has a snowball effect too. Energy is often the limiting factor in production. An abundance of cheap energy makes it cheaper to produce more cheap energy production.
Unless you live in the US where tarrifs will keep that from being a reality.
There’s too much money in renewables for rich people. The tariffs may or may not happen, but the renewable switch is a runaway train, and almost entirely in the country.
On the electricity futures market, wind producers regularly sell their power for negative prices (paying transmission companies to take their power) because it’s so cheap for them to make, with such negligible overhead; since the government subsidies are based on the mWh they produce, they can sell it at a loss and still make money. But even if those subsidies go away, renewables can still easily undercut every other producer on the grid.
That’s just one example. The same tipping point is approaching fast all over just about every industry. Obama and Biden got the renewable energy industry over the hump of research and infrastructure outlay, so now Tr*mp gets to take the credit for their work while it all falls into place; and because the rich people are benefiting from it financially, they’re going to protect the industry.
The tariffs may or may not happen
The 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs already happened in September. Joe Biden announced them in May and they kicked off already. I don’t expect Trump to change anything with that.
I’m talking about batteries, specifically. And the US is decades behind on batteries.
Definitely true, though Elon paid enough money to Trump that he’s probably going to make sure there’s a cutout in any tariffs for Tesla’s batteries (which are largely made by CATL in China). Besides, cheap power means that even with tariffs raising the prices of batteries, BEVs are still going to be worth driving.
Yeah, but that will be true for the electric cars made in the coming years, not the ones made in the past few years. People were right to be put off by the prices.
And even then, will these new cheap batteries be durable? I worry a lot about all these EVs becoming unusable in 10 years because the batteries are ruined, just like my 10 year old laptop
People who didn’t lease will lose their shirts but the price of new cars is the primary driver for the price of used cars. New, cheap, and more useable EVs will make used ones cheap.
As to the reliability, it remains to be seen. Considering the size of a vehicle I think an aftermarket will pop up for refurbishing and replacing batteries like it has for the earliest modern EVs in the us, the leaf.
Thanks to COVID and speeding mRNA research we are at the cusp of curing many auto-immune diseases. I’m 47 with a kid with diabetes and another with celiac. I’m confident both will be cured in my lifetime
Fuck yeah. Science, bitch!
I am about to go on a date!
How did it go?
Well, I was worried that I had forgotten the art of dating, but it seems that there will be another! I don’t know how it will end up, but for now I’m happy!
I was worried that I had forgotten the art of dating
Peepee go in vajayjay. You’ve got this.
Have a great time and be sure to tell lemmy all about it afterwards!
Hopefully we’re about to have dozens of Luigis. That’s something to celebrate.
Nintendo should see that Luigi is trending and make some more games. For… Reasons.
A Nintendo Hitman clone where you play as Luigi and have to take revenge on Bowser’s cronies because they stopped Mario from getting treatment when he needed it.
I might be getting a new job which is better in every way. Only a couple people know about it.
Edit: I didn’t get the job. I am not taking it well.
Hey!! Congrats!!! That’s really nice!!! What will you do in this new job?
Reception, with some managerial responsibilities. There’s room to move up.
I have a Bachelor’s in Game Programming. The world doesn’t need another game programmer right now, but my experience managing projects came in handy.
I currently work in grocery, min wage, as a janitor/stocker.
Nice!!! Not only is this a nice job it also gives you contacts, something that can be really really powerful when looking for a new job as some people can just make a new position for you, literally how my dad went from a reception worker to his accounting job when he graduated!! I wish you a great job and that things work out amazingly for you!!!
Holy shit awesome man! Even if it doesn’t pan out don’t lose hope! I got rejected on 3 different positions and thought I was just not the cut. 7 years later after landing the 4th and I’m a completely different person. NEVER give up! You and your future are worth it. I promise.
There’s a bloke on Youtube who actually purveys good news on a regular basis if anyone’s interested: https://www.youtube.com/@itsSamBentley
Thanks for sharing this!
People now about solar but I think most people don’t know that the 21st century will become dominated by solar really fast. The growth will be exponential and in the coming decade we’ll really see it happening at a ridiculous pace.
It’ll also be really cheap and complemented by cheap storage. It always sounds like it’s 50 years away but in reality electrification is coming in so fast and cheap where the developing world will leap frog fossil fuels.
If you’re a homeowner you can almost certainly buy solar in a manner where the monthly financing will be similar to what you save in monthly electric bills. So it’s a wash.
This year.
The difference is that electric bills will go up, while the financing terms stay the same.
Looked into this a few years ago and you could have said the same then. The problem was the deal with the financing had all these weird caveats when you looked into the details like you didn’t own the panels, and any cost would transfer with the sale of the house, it was like a forever rental with no upgrades ever.
When we get to the point that you can get solar added, and own everything, and can pay for it without financing with a positive ROI in 3 years, that’s the tipping point.
I’m projecting inflation adjusted prices of energy to go down in the coming years as well as financing costs. The energy market is stabilising with the Ukraine war and central bank rates are also going down right now. Outlook is pretty good economically right but Covid and Ukraine really threw a wrench into the works and fucked up 4 years so far
Yeah i wouldn’t be surprised if the next 4 years saw natural gas and coal plants being torn down because they can’t be subsidized cheaper than solar.
5 words never written in sequence by a utility provider:
“We are lowering your rates”
All those early access games I bought will get updates in 2025.
I’m now on a Early Access conveyor belt. Every few months, something I’ve been waiting for gets a new update. I got like 10 games that I rotate between, with new ones being added and old ones getting dropped off.
And they’re all big with their community support.
Im very excited.
You may not be getting many upvotes but I feel you man. I had one come along for me recently and it was pure bliss. Was so great I bought a copy at full retail for my kid just to make sure I was additionally supporting them (and they wanted it but that’s a bonus lol)
The corporate real estate market is going to tank, people are going to turn their empty office building caused by everyone working from home into apartments, and rental prices are going to crash because of how desperate the corps are to bring in any money. Once rental market tanks, housing market tanks, and all those massive investment firms buying up neighborhoods are going to see their investment shrink like a cold Wang doodle. Expect crying ceo’s and a massive government bailout in the next 4-7 yes for this exact scenario.
I know turning office buildings into apartments seems like a fantastic idea on the surface but there are a LOT of reasons this doesnt work, ranging from fire code issues, utility service locations and access and HVAC design. Sorry.
How is that good? Rich people will get away with it and we will pay the price.
Jubilee is coming. Whether that’s good or not in your book probably depends on whether you are a devout Catholic, but its certainly a rare event.
I could think of s couple of contexts that this would apply. Lets see if the lord pulls through…
Sounds like they should do it more often.
you are not about to be kicked in the nads by me…
…but one of you will be.
Humanity will probably die out in the next hundred years and the planet will finally be able to recover, even if it has to start over from microbes to get there.
Well this only good news for Russian bootlickers but the foundation’s of geopolitics becoming more and more true.
What does that mean?
I think russia is going down hard (20 jan being their sole hope to salvage their kleptocracy) and with it the evil influence in many parts of the world => good news.
I would recommend if you wish to sit down and read the book, it reads like a mad mans manifesto on how to take over europe and china but putin is using it as a playbook. It’s available on the internet archive in english to read. Everything over the past few years is going to their plan, and the instability of civility in the USA is apart of that. killing CEO’s and people being pushed to brink of using violence to send their message or push progress forward, bringing a domino effect of the US goverment under donlad trump revolting and causing a 2nd civil war. Eurpoe should not rely on the US for defence, and should focus on their own.
Ya, that’s quite clear.
But we’re waking up, I mean Europe, the Kremlin forgets the numerous times when we kicked their ass.
Lots of “normal” people also starts to understand that lots and lots of bad things are backed by russia (libya, iran, argentina, cuba, rise if the right wing in EU/USA, hate and division, electoral interference, the list goes on) whicb mean they are out in the open. Also the ruble has collapsed, the soviet arms stockpiles are running out and so forth, russia is going under.
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Good job putting the round peg in the square hole!
I don’t get why this comment has triggered so many people. Lmao.
…the OP specified a positive… piece of news.
Why am I the guy telling you this? The dude two replies ago should’ve said something.
…I’m disappointed in everyone 😔
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wait wait. you have a point.
this is an opportunity to buy low and…wait a second…I’m getting a report that the economy will never recover.
in better news, spend your money now because you’ll only get to use it as heat later!
That’s ok, they can downvote all they want, y’all will remember me when shit gets worse. lol
Well, in the northern hemisphere, we’ll start getting progressively more daylight in 6 days.
Oh hell yeah
Wait, already? I want dark. Me need dark.
Keep your blinds down then, but the rest of us praise the sun!
Night man, ahhEHHHahhhhh!!!
If only I could be so grossly incandescent!
I only praise the man-made sun.
It’ll still continue to feel dark until early March so don’t worry.
Yea this is my first winter in the northern hemisphere, I was warned about the dark being unbearable, but it’s been pretty good so far…
It’s harder on the upswing for me. Maybe it’s because January and February seem to stretch on after the holidays, but I don’t really get tired of winter until later (luckily).
It depends how north are you
Absolutely, but unless you’re in Antarctica, it can get much more extreme in the North than South. Tierra del Fuego is south of Australia and South Africa, but it’s closer to the equator than the southern tip of Norway.
By like 2° latitude… But yeah… Nobody lives below Tierra del Fuego all year (scientists maybe?) but plenty of people live North of there (Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Finland etc.).
Source that there is a Finland?
Thank fuck. I hate the thing where the sunrise is at 10am, and sunset is at 2pm.
I can take the cold. I like seasons. I despise the short days.
I love it. For about 2 weeks. Then I just want to go to Spain until May.
Spain is still too far north. I want to dive into liquid magma till May.
Booooo!
Vampires hate this one weird trick
What, not being in highschool? That tends to put them off their feed, I hear. 🤢🙃
