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@pluralistic

In the US, at least, another factor may be hatred of utility companies. In the US, being natural monopolies, utilities often take advantage of that by being arrogant, greedy, & unresponsive to users.

There is a lot of anger & hatred of utilities floating around, but not doing anything because there is no realistic alternative.

Given a choice that is reliable and not too much more expensive, lots of people will go off the grid just so they can give the utility company the finger.

@pluralistic I can tell you from anecdotal evidence here in Germany...a LOT of people seem to have invested in private photovoltaic installations in Q1/Q2 of 2026.

One of the big online retailers here currently has shipping dispatch times of 24 - 29 workdays (massive increase from previous dispatch times of ~5-7 days).

When people buy these installations, especially the bigger, non-balcony systems they are planned for a lifetime of ~15 years.
That's roughly 8,000-10,000kWh of external energy demand destroyed per household per year!

And honestly I'd say forever, because it seems very unlikely that after 15 years of getting used to free solar energy you'd go back. Especially considering future technological improvements and falling unit prices for both solar panels and battery storage.

I think Rebecca Solnit is absolutely right here.

@pluralistic Although, that image is not as powerful and optimistic as the creator probably thinks it is, even of orange lenin is amusing. The high iq lawyer from the best schools