Aside from the fact that they are listening to propaganda, it’s also a matter of framing. They think of solar as green weenie shit, the ineffectual limp dick replacement for tried and true all American machine power.
It all starts sounding different when you frame it as a security issue. Large scale solar will keep working through almost anything, even if parts of it are damaged. Most other forms of power need constant maintenance and can suffer catastrophic failure that renders the whole thing inoperable and costing a fortune to replace.
More importantly, it adds flexibility since it can be rapidly deployed and remains effective at smaller scales. The military wants solar because the alternative is often a gas generator that needs fuel shipped in by truck, a common target for attack. If your house has a solar roof and battery backup, a blackout isn’t going to effect you. Power can be out for weeks and you’ll barely notice, while previously the only option was a gas generator that only powers a few circuits in your house and is inevitably going to run out of fuel.
The more widespread solar and battery gets, the more secure we are as a civilization against large scale catastrophes that disrupt the grid, whether that’s war, sabotage or natural disasters.
Best way I’ve seen to explain solar power and EVs to a right winger is tell them I don’t have to fill my car with expensive Saudi oil, I make good clean American electricity when the sun hits my roof and I use it to drive around. If oil was worthless because we have better forms of power, we could stop caring what some Arab princes think we should be paying to drive to work.
Aside from the fact that they are listening to propaganda, it’s also a matter of framing. They think of solar as green weenie shit, the ineffectual limp dick replacement for tried and true all American machine power.
It all starts sounding different when you frame it as a security issue. Large scale solar will keep working through almost anything, even if parts of it are damaged. Most other forms of power need constant maintenance and can suffer catastrophic failure that renders the whole thing inoperable and costing a fortune to replace.
More importantly, it adds flexibility since it can be rapidly deployed and remains effective at smaller scales. The military wants solar because the alternative is often a gas generator that needs fuel shipped in by truck, a common target for attack. If your house has a solar roof and battery backup, a blackout isn’t going to effect you. Power can be out for weeks and you’ll barely notice, while previously the only option was a gas generator that only powers a few circuits in your house and is inevitably going to run out of fuel.
The more widespread solar and battery gets, the more secure we are as a civilization against large scale catastrophes that disrupt the grid, whether that’s war, sabotage or natural disasters.
Best way I’ve seen to explain solar power and EVs to a right winger is tell them I don’t have to fill my car with expensive Saudi oil, I make good clean American electricity when the sun hits my roof and I use it to drive around. If oil was worthless because we have better forms of power, we could stop caring what some Arab princes think we should be paying to drive to work.
That’s a great way of putting it.
We’ve had fewer power outages at our new offgrid house (0) than we had living anywhere else