Where I live the grid is 100% renewables and we have an EV, problem solved IG
Ok, all personal efforts are good to take, but we will never emphasize enough that the energy transition is not and cannot work solely at individual or households level.
In our current world, we use oil to make fertilizer to grow food, we use extensive gas-powered machinery for everything in the fields and for cattles. Then we need gas-powered trucks to transport food to the supermarkets, themselves dependent on transportation of an army of low wages jobs: the ones who will struggle more with rising costs of transportations.
In winter, a lot of food is growed in greenhouses heated by burning gas.
Almost all of complex devices around us are heavily dependent on globlalization, so cheap transportation of goods thanks to oil.
Even after the war, damages on natural gas infra already made will have repercussions for years.
And even beyond that, we know that the conventional oil reserve worldwide is depleting, and non-conventional will get more and more expensive as the most accessible deposit will also deplete.
We urgently need ambitious public policies.
I agree, but that starts with the individual. If no one gives a shit, nothing changes. Give a shit, speak up, and others will feel more comfortable taking part alongside you.
I have an uh…single portable solar cell. So I guess my plan is to overheat my tablet for warmth during winter.
F
Already bike to commute, to groceries and to school to drop the kids but we have a decent infra.
When buying I sometimes choose organic products to cut on fertilizers, buy local products, and vote for people that encourage “green” policies as all others don’t seems prone to look for alternatives.
Gonna build a nuclear powered windmill on top of my house. I have a little Thor action figure which I’ll glue to it, so that’s the Thorium part taken care of. And I need a fan blade from my desktop fan. Beyond that, I should be good to go!
I’ve been getting rid of gasoline power tools, I have electric versions of all lawn and garden tools. I may trade a vehicle or two for an EV in the next few years.
I am stuck in Alabama-Stan. Our presumed next governor is a MAGAt. We bought an EV last year (used VW id4) to get my wife something to get the kids everywhere in. I have taken her old car (a 2006 VW Jetta TDI) and am using it as my commuter car for work, 60 miles a day. It has drastically lowered our footprint, as they replaced our primary family and commuter vehicle, my old Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. My wallet appreciates the lower costs of both cars to get around, CO2 per mile is substantially less, and even having our local utility company screwing us on rates, it’s still cheaper and greener.
We are unfortunately the least solar friendly state in the US. There is no net metering, and our utility company charges you per kw capacity of your system to keep a backup in case they have to provide you with power. I have plans for that, I’m on vacation this all and hope I have time to sit down and draw up a reasonably diy solar system for us. I DESPISE our corrupt utility company and would like nothing better than to never have to give them money again.
If it makes you feel better, Pakistan’s insanely corrupt utility companies run a scam tax for every kw you provide to the grid, so you only earn like 15% of the actual power’s worth, and only after you pay an exorbitant fee to install a reversible meter.
So now everyone skips the meter and has started installing tons of batteries to completely bypass the grid lol. Like every house and even villages are wired for solar, but the crappy utility companies still do rolling blackouts to pretend there’s a shortage of supply.
Even funnier, the batteries reach ROI in only 3 years, and they still fetch good money when you go to recycle them due to the precious metal value.
That sounds really similar to our setup. kWh rates for consumers are about 16.5 cents per kWh, but they’ll buy your excess at 3.94 cents per kWh. So 23.8% of what you pay them. Plus, the $5/kW fee for firm backup capacity I mentioned earlier.
The charlatans came out last summer and said we would start to have rolling blackouts if we didn’t all set our thermostats to 80 or 82 degrees (27.78 C), I can’t remember the exact amount, but the collective consensus was that if they’ll all set their thermostats in their boardrooms to 82, then we’d talk about it. You and I both know that wasn’t going to happen. They always talk about us having to be conservative on energy usage in the summers, but they don’t let us offset our loads with solar or anything else. And Alabama, as I’m fairly certain Pakistan probably does also, has an abundance of sunshine in the summer. And they’ve never curtailed my employer (a large manufacturing plant) or any of the local steel mills on energy consumption. And you can guarantee they won’t do the data centers either. It’s always you and I bearing the brunt of their poor decisions.
No, I really don’t have plans this year, but
- This past year I replaced an air conditioner with heat pump in my addition. It is a great heat source for shoulder seasons, but gas is cheaper when it’s cold
- The year before I replaced gas range with induction
- The year before that I bought an EV and installed a level 2 charger
- A few years earlier, I chose an electricity provider with 70% renewable generation
Six years of driving an EV
Haven’t thought about the cost of moving from A to B in 5 years, it’s a rounding error pretty much.
Working from home more is my plan if it keeps getting worse.
We’ve been leasing an EV for a few years and have saved quite a bit. Even better currently. The only problem I have with it is unsolicited opinions from others about how shit EVs are, like I haven’t been driving petrol or diesel for 20 fucking years .
I like when others give their negative opinions about EVs, gives me something to laugh at.
It’s like the Simpsons clip, ‘brought to you by the oil companies of the US’, where they intentionally rip on EVs. The number of idiots who miss the satire is staggering.
Biking (e-bikes are great if you can afford one and greatly increase range and decrease effort in many environments)
Installing solar (I’m currently renting but my state is debating a new law which seems likely to pass modeled on the Utah law - and others which started in Europe - which allows small solar systems to be plugged directly into a home outlet to supplement energy needs with minimal cost)
Beyond the direct plug-in kind of solar. There’s now solar generators. Basically a portable battery pack that accepts solar energy and has its own outlets, no change in laws needed.
Anker Solix is having a sale this weekend.
Absolutely. They do tend to be quite a bit more expensive per watt though. From my research you can get cheap panels and just plug them into a LiPo4 battery or even lead acid batteries as well. It’s just that batteries (even though they’ve gotten a lot cheaper) are still expensive enough to nearly double the cost of the system in many cases so the plug-in option with 400 watts of panels etc gives you the best bang for the buck for sure. But it’s not legal or possible in many US states (though that is changing fast)
I’m already practically speaking living free of fossil fuels -
- For transportation, I only really bike and take transit
- The heating in my apartment is district heating
- The electricity grid in Sweden is all but entirely free of fossil fuels
So there’s not really that much more to be done.
You can always be an advocate and teacher about how you live, speak loudly and always share what you know to be true. There are many people who are completely ignorant to how successful and progressive Sweden’s electricity is.
Hijacking this post to ask for some communities that focus on renewable energy & environment
We have the answers. It’s just getting the politicians all on board with it and shutting up the lobbyists for fossil fuels.
