Post by @kimcrawley@zeroes.ca

RE: https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/116912431555882422

This isn't "solar power is bad," solar power is excellent and badly needed!

Just that solar panels should be paid for by the government and by entities with money. The costs shouldn't be offloaded to poor people.

Entities with money ought to invest in solar power for all, the investment will show excellent returns.

Gerry McGovern

@gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green 3 hours ago

Who pays for cheap solar?

The poor.

“In California, households installing solar are disproportionately wealthy (as well as disproportionately white), so the result is clear: Net energy metering shifts costs onto the poor.”
https://www.latimes.com/specialsupplements/story/2025-08-12/hidden-cost-of-rooftop-solar-subsidies

"With systems costing $15,000 to $25,000, this model has created two distinct classes of energy consumers: those who can afford solar, and those who cannot, with around 60 per cent of Australian households locked out of solar"
https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/the-hidden-crisis-behind-australia-s-solar-boom-20251119-p5ngpe

Gerry McGovern

@gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green 3 hours ago

@kimcrawley Unfortunately, all over the world, the environmental and social costs of solar are offloaded onto the poor because that's the way the system is designed. California--the home of solar--has some of the highest electricity bills that mainly poor people are paying, in the US. That's the system working as designed. And the costs of solar the poor are far more than simply higher electricity bills. Entire ecosystems are being ripped asunder.