I paid ~$800 for 1.2kW of solar panels on my van in 2023. The 600Ah of LFP was an additional $1,700. I’ve not paid a power bill in 2.5 years. How anyone could choose to not go solar baffles me. I was paying $3/kWh through the city-owned utility. Nominally, it was somewhere around 15 cents, but after all the fees that Austin charges, despite using only 20kWh/month, my bill was $60 at minimum.
The city has now raised rates five times since I went off-grid, so a straight $60 times 30 months undersells the ROI. It would now be $75-80, and $80 times 30 months means I’ll have broken even by May.
Less than three years, and when the power goes out in town, I’m unaware of it unless I run into a complaint on Reddit.
that is an absurdly high price for energy. I pay on average between 20 and 30 euro cent per kwh
Just for context, are you living in your van 24/7? Just seems like wild numbers for anyone in a house to achieve.
Probably, the $3/kwh is definitely not the price you get for a house.
Everyone pays the same base fees, so despite tiered pricing, on a unit basis, it is far cheaper to power a sprawling four-bedroom house than a small apartment. The $46 dollars in fees spreads itself far better over 1,000kWh than 20.
I was apparently unclear about the order of operations. When I left my 1/1 apartment, I was effectively paying $3/kWh. I now pay $0. And yes, I live in my van full-time.
Ah, fairs.
Well in some countries solar is curbed. You are forced to sell it back to the grid at a low price.
The thought is good, because everyone benefits. In practice it’s bad because nobody wants to buy the panels.
They just changed this in my country so hopefully it will be more popular. Also government buildings are getting it all over now.
I love solar, but this article is misleading. It says ~2000 people died as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. While technically true, only 1 person has died from radiation related to the event. The other deaths were as people were evacuating the exclusion zone (eg. Old people who couldn’t get medical treatment during the evacuation).
…forcing the evacuation of more than 150,000 people. More than 2,000 die in the process.it looks precise to me
The article is correct. You are misinterpreting the writer: “…forcing the evacuation of more than 150,000 people. More than 2,000 die in the process.” An event (Nuclear plant disaster) forced evacuation of people. That evacuation (from the area due to the nuclear plant disaster) resulted in 2000 deaths.
There were over 2000 deaths directly related to the evacuation order. No known deaths from radiation related events. Here are some links and quotes from a few places to show consensus on this.
“Official figures show that there have been 2313 disaster-related deaths among evacuees from Fukushima prefecture. Disaster-related deaths are in addition to the about 19,500 that were killed by the earthquake or tsunami.” - World Nuclear Association, a think tank and pro nuclear policy group.
No deaths nor discernible increase in cancer rates - UNSCEAR Report, 2013, a UN agency
And if you want to deep dive:
https://www.pref.fukushima.lg.jp/site/portal-english/en-1-2-1.html
