@davep

I've un-tagged Charlie,Am sure he gets plenty of noise in his feed.

That said;

yeah the article is kinda trash

that whole 'unexpected!' thing.

said so yday

no, not unexpected, modeled and anticipated well over half century back.

pv solar is a win, always was.

even solar heat harvesting is very real & productive, and always has been

old & hard to find expose' on early days of solar:

Ray Reece's "The Sun Betrayed"

https://archive.org/details/sunbetrayedrepor00reec

it's an old & ugly story

@davep
well

sure.

our electric utility outfits can shoulder a lot of this as well.

they love their coal plants.

every grid tied array *reduces* grid loading.

where's the fun in that?

The fun bit?

every installation I worked on in .WV yrs ago

the linecrews? the reg 'blue collar' folks? who did the final tie-ins?
Into It!
Excited about it.

the khaki&poloshirt white hardhats with the clipboards?

eh, , , not so much.

@davep
indeed
no argument

kinda always was.

look
oil cos, utility cos *love* pv solar, telcoms as well.

can deploy anywhere, provide current relative to the ground state, which is a massive win for galvanic corrosion, and a host of other annoyances that plague built infrastructure. No matter the per-watt cost.

why they invested
but they have no interest in 'us' using it

truth:
pacific nw pot growers kept retail pv solar alive for decades

there's a fun story there

@davep
remember the periodical: "Home Power Journal" ?

ceased publication about a decade back?

Gobs of info on 'guerrilla solar' installations, before folks tossed in the towel and started adapting codes to permit the tidal-waves that were here anyway?

Sure.
Greenies with bottomless pits of $$ were buying these staggeringly-expensive panels, inverters, etc

But:
Seriously folks:

what market force created these warehouses of solar power goodies?

&

where were they located?