Ending of the woke solar subsidies ☀️

Maybe it was time for the weaning ring and weening solar off of the big subsidies that seemed so necessary not that long ago but now seem less necessary as technology has matured and prices have come down. Children need training wheels to learn how to ride a bike. Calves need their mothers milk for the first few months of life before they can digest grain and hay. Assistance is sometimes essential at the start but becomes less important as time marches on.

The end of the solar tax credit will inevitably slow the roll out of solar power. But often those credits were abused by businesses and used to sell overpriced loans and poorly planned and implemented solar electric systems that have a much shorter lifespan than advertised. It’s not that technology is bad or that we should be moving away from solar – but instead ti should become mainstream without government subsidy. You build a house, it includes solar. You renovate a house, you add solar. Not because of government incentives but because it’s the right thing to do and will save you money in the long run.

Truth is solar needs to mature and not just be a subsidized and financialized government-endorsed scheme. Solar systems – even grid tied systems – should include storage and not rely on there always being excess demand in the grid that every non-solar homeowner is picking up. Net metering has in many cases become a scam – financial companies are using bill credits to subsidize abusive financial products.  I’m glad the solar scam is coming to an end. Let’s force solar to transition into a solid technology that supports the grid and reduces carbon emissions and not a government endorsed way of scamming the financially unsophisticated.