if every household had solar panels and batteries

High density housing is unlikely to be compatible with that.

Also rental dwelling owners and people with limited economic resources tend to be less likely to make those kinds of capital investment.

▲

chii 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They are not forced to make those kinds of capital investments if they're unable - they'd be no worse off than today. Those who do get cheaper electricity (in lieu of whatever they could've otherwise spent that capital on).

However, it's the onus of the gov't (regional or federal) to create the investment needed for large, industrial scale solar and battery storage. That's what taxpayer money should be spent on.

▲

hvb2 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> they'd be no worse off than today.

They will, assuming the people that went off grid stop paying for it. As fewer people pay for it the costs per capita grow

	▲	chii 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The cost of the grid has already been paid for. Upgrades to the grid has a higher per-capita cost, if there's fewer people paying for those upgrades today. But they're not worse off, because the upgrades are better. For them to be worse off, the upgrades they pay for has to be worse than what they got today.

▲

himata4113 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

yah, this is more for low density/mid density housing, I am sure the roots of 2-3 floor apts should be more than enough to sustain it as energy needs of apartments are lower to begin with. They can also bleed them into parking lots and have cover from the sun.

	▲	JuniperMesos an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Even at 2-3 stories, I'm skeptical that there's enough roof surface area to provide enough solar panels to individually cover the electrical use of all the inhabitants. Many 2-3 story apartment buildings don't have parking lots at all - and it's a common pro-density urbanist political project to remove the requirements to build one, because it discourages car use and also makes projects cheaper - but even if they did, a small apartment also means less surface area for solar panels over the parking lot. And once you're in a building with multiple households, that means that the solar panels - and the amount of energy every individual household draws from them - has to be managed communally. I'm glad I don't have to justify the power use of my home server to a group of my neighbors concerned about managing a common resource, and just pay my power bill to the de-facto-monopoly state-regulated electric utility company.
	▲	rjsw 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Can put panels on walls too.