My favorite Elon Musk quote?  "APPLE.....Where Tesla developers go to die".

Thought that was the greatest...No way Steve Jobs would've ever let him get away with it..Their would've been an all out war...

Tim Cook?  Not so much.

My home has 600 amp service.

Frederick

There is still a lot to learn and develop with solar and wind energy. As we learn to create more efficient PV cells with less material, they become more attractive.

There is an interesting side effect associated with large ocean based wind arrays -- they lower the local ocean temperature and wind velocity. As we learn more about this, we may develop some control over large scale weather events. There will also be a yet to be discovered impact on sea life due to the water temperature change. A big challenge is running the generated electricity back to the mainland. Maybe Tesla will triumph again, or we will start creating floating cities near the arrays.

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What the world really needs TODAY, is a Bitcoin mining "brick" that is powered by a solar or wind array. These things could be dropped off in remote areas and create their wealth.

Why are you trying to dump on the guy's lifestyle? Have you ever been in a room with a fireplace that has a heat recovery system? Your being from California, I doubt it- it can get damn hot in the room even with the fireplace doors closed. I worked with him- he made decent money at the time and AFAIK, still does. We were talking specifically about his solar system and I don't know why he would lie about it- he wasn't trying to sell me on the idea.

Thought about that after I crawled in bed lol.

To charge your electric car.

I get it, we are going from 12 cylinder to 12 volt, but, we need to be realistic about it and its actual costs, actual and real enviromental impact and close attention to who's political agenda boxes we are ticking and the motivation behind it.

Solar energy is not without cost,cause and effect on the planet, its a small check on the list but far from any total solution.

All work/motation has enviromental impact unless we are all going to grab our extra bed sheets and make sales and attach them to our skateboards.

And what about this?
Mining Bitcoins uses more electricity than entire countries.

[Link: vox.com]

When I was a kid there was a company that popped that built heating systems that ran on wood, oil, and solar. They were really just a boiler system with a wood stove built into them. They were very popular here since wood fired heat is common here. Many people, especially when building new houses, had the solar panels installed because at the time the tax credits made doing so a cash positive option. But the reality was the solar panels didn’t work well. All they did was heat the water in the furnace. But they were bad to over heat the water and boil the water out of the furnace.

Now, even though the environmental impact may be just an lateral adjustment instead of a positive gain, the technology for solar is so far ahead of what it was in the 80s, they can’t even be compared. But without those early attempts at harnessing solar, we wouldn’t have technology they can now actually power a home.

On a related note, has anyone seen the articles on Subaru has turned their plant into a zero landfill manufacturing facility?

[Link: scientificamerican.com]

They mention that in their TV ads- good for them.

Impressive.

Human waste in general, packaging specifically, is something that bothers me.

I used to install phone systems and the actual desk phone came in a box, lined with form fitting foam cut outs for every piece of the phone and every piece of the phone inside the box was in its own individual plastic bag.

The wiper blades for a Maserati Ghibli or Quattroporte come as a set in one box. Inside that box each blade is in its own individual box with the empty space filled with packing paper. Inside each box is the blade wrapped in bubble wrap. Inside the bubble wrap is a wiper blade in its own individual plastic bag. Once out of the plastic bag each blade has its own slide on protector for the rubber part of the blade.
Pisses me off every time I open a set. They are tired of hearing about it from me.

I would like to see some kind of report on how much waste is being generated by amazon.

If we ate better as humans we would also be generating less waste as we would be buying food that didnt come in packages to begin with.

Farm to table.

I know, I'm a computer nerd and when I first heard of Bitcoin, I thought that I could pull some sort of mining operation together, but when I looked at the upfront and operating costs needed for an almost practical mine, I refrained from getting involved.

One interesting characteristic of a Bitcoin "mine" compared to more traditional mines is that there is no visible pollution outside the door of a Bitcoin "mine". These "mines" are not polluting nearby air or water resources and there is no slag to dump somewhere. The pollution occurs elsewhere and the "mine" looks clean. Of course there is a steady stream of quickly obsolete hardware to dispose of, but this can be done almost unnoticed.

December 26 is the worst day of the year for me as I drive or walk the streets and see all of the gift wrapping and already broken, discarded toys waiting for pickup.

A guy occupying the white house in the 70's tried to start this trend but the oil companies replaced him with their guy.

You should read more history instead of just the talking points you get on your Soros newsletters.