A libertarians case for home solar.
If you frequent any of the libertarian blogs, Facebook pages, or twitter accounts in regards to solar. The comments are very negative. Mainly libertarians hate the subsidies from the U.S. Government, where the tax payer is footing the bill for "Green energy." I agree with these complaints. The government should not be picking winners and losers in the market. More arguments I've seen against the technology is that there are problems with the ability to collect energy daylight hours and rainy days. Then you hear about how much carbon dioxide we emit just to make the things. The annoying part of that argument is. This is literally the only argument that complains about carbon footprints as a case to not do it next to electric cars. You don't hear about carbon footprints when we making washing machines, computers, and all the other things we consume. Why is it suddenly relevant if only to go up against a person whose primary reason is climate change? Then there is the argument we have to mine for the resources for not just solar, but with batteries now being able to power the home. There is a need for Lithium. So we have to mine it they say. You mean like every other material on the face of the Earth? The people who make this argument have no problem with diamond, iron, coal, and gold mines. But Lithium? Nah! Can't do it. The people who are all for green energy seldom have a defense for this argument because they know these are not green activities.
But then there are people like me! I don't care about any of that. I simply see a technology that has an ability to compete with oil, natural gas, hydro etc. If people want to voluntarily buy it on an individual level. Who cares? The technology could actually loosen governments grip on the private energy sector. If there was such a thing. Climate change, Carbon foot prints, who cares? These issues just divide us. I just want to power my house my slapping some panels to it. All this crap on the news about Terrorists who could target our grid, Kim Jong Un being able to hit us with an EMP. The demand humans place on the power companies. Basically all these fear mongering tactics just kind of go out the window. Sounds to me like the grid is too vulnerable to be trusted and the power companies? The way everyone complains about the demands we put on them. It sounds like my local monopoly on power has far too many customers. I would really like to alleviate their burdens in this department. We also hear constant complaints that there are no real competitors to fossil fuels outside of companies drilling for the same substance in the ground. By only utilizing this market, we are in essence creating scarcity.
The way I look at the technology, is it's just something that the free market brought us that could bring a lot of people a lot more independence. If you can power your home its one less bill to worry about. There are also constant claims by libertarians that the free market will always solve the worlds problems and it has. Like the model T the automobile wasn't perfect overnight. It took time and learning from mistakes. Like the Dodge Laser. This is why I hate issues like this becoming political.
Now lets say I have a solar roof with two power-walls made by Tesla to power my home. Lets say there is a lightning storm that knocks out power for a week. Do you want to be the people who are waiting in long lines and running around trying to get fuel for their generators. Or maybe you are simply going to stay somewhere else until the power comes back. But the guy with solar doesn't have to do any of that. He has power and is able to utilize it for at least part of the day so long as he has a battery. So depending on how efficient you are with your appliances. That power could last him for a time. All he has to do is let his house sit in the sun. He doesn't have to worry about running around for fuel, or his food going bad. Why is this not a good idea? Why do we always rely on highly centralized, highly vulnerable equipment that we take for granted until its gone. Wouldn't you want solar and a powerwall to avoid all that? Wouldn't you want to have power for some of the day instead of none of the day? If you make your house more efficient both in R value, Air loss, etc. You can cut down on your energy needs even further.
The biggest issue I have with the current markets is there is always scarcity and people crying about it as an excuse to ration and even limit other peoples choices in the market. Every year I hear about people complaining more and more about Christmas lights. Or John Kerry complaining about air conditioners. The country's consumption is a problem. Look We have a technology here that could cut the demands on the grid and get the world to stop pointing fingers at what everybody else is doing. We have an ability to reduce demand, increase our liberty, and get government to be less intrusive on how we consume energy.
On a final note: Think of all the ASICS miners you could bring online for mining bitcoin and Etherium!
Note: (Wrote this pretty late. Will edit in the morning)