My solar install is scheduled for December. Even if it ends up missing the cutoff for a tax break I still think it’s the right thing to do. The combination of investing in green energy and locking in my effective electric rate is the smart move right now.
… and I heard on Friday that OpenAI is planning a data center 15 miles south of me. That can only make things worse.
I also am in the process of completing a solar install to get the tax breaks expiring this year. Depending on total cost (i'm DIYing and didn't predict all expenses) I can pay it off in 5-7 years. My power bill is up 50% in one year, and has been increasing for years. With more datacenters taking up more power (which we pay for), the bill's only gonna increase.
There is still time to complete a solar install yourself and get federal+state tax breaks. Call up your energy provider, get connected to their distributed generation department, and submit the forms/documentation/plans they require. Then you build your system, get it inspected, the utility approves it and completes the hookup. ChatGPT makes all this fairly easy. I can upload my forms and the process to GitHub if anyone wants to see the process for NY state.
The simplest grid-tied system is solar panels + roof-mounting equipment + microinverters + a combiner box + a disconnect switch. This is enough to send solar power direct to the grid, assuming your microinverter supports the standards your power utility requires. You can do a PV+ESS (battery) system, but it's a ton more expensive (even assuming you DIY). It should be cheaper to do grid-tied projects, but many power utilities now mandate new standards for grid-tied devices that only the expensive inverters support.
If you do off-grid (which I believe there's still some tax breaks for, depending), you can build a PV+ESS system much cheaper, as the off-grid equipment doesn't require the more expensive standards. We're talking $3.5k vs $9k for the same system.
It would also be cheaper if we supported balcony solar the way Germany does. A big concern of mine is that poor people and people in apartments (~40% of Americans live in apartments) won't have the ability to supplement their bills with solar. If all the people with money and land/houses switch to solar, and the poor can't, the poor'll be propping up a big portion of the energy sector themselves, which is unsustainable.
This is not true. Energy prices are rising globally, even in countries with few or no data centers and declining industrial activity. It increasingly looks like a coordinated effort to extract as much revenue as possible from consumers before widespread adoption of solar power shifts the balance.
> Energy prices have risen roughly at the rate of CPI since 2022, perhaps we got used to the relatively flat prices for the previous decade:
That statement seems to be upside-down. Energy factors into the cost of almost every other product, that is, the rise of energy prices causes much of the inflation elsewhere, which is then reflected by the CPI.
Also notice, 2022 is when the data-center and AI boom started, that too fits the premise of their culpability.
But then we live in a bizarre world where inflation is good, and the price of everything rising together is just wholesome and natural.
I am not an expert in electricity generation or transmission, but it does seem strange that this “data center scare” is happening coincidental with (other?) big jumps in home electricity rates that have nothing to do with data centers.
For example, Massachusetts rates are way up because New England politicians have spent more than a decade fighting natural gas infrastructure, especially pipelines that would bring cheap North American gas vs. LNG that is in short supply post-Russia/Ukraine war.
At the same time, MA politicians created the “Mass Save” program that’s effectively a giant boondoggle where utility ratepayers are subsidizing fly-by-night “energy efficiency” contractors who have no incentive to be efficient at all.
There is a big push in PA too. Our governor Josh Shapiro seems more pro-datacenter than not. (Note he is a potential 2028 presidential hopeful who, full disclosure, I voted for and don't regret doing that since the alternative was a total nut job IMHO).
Meanwhile everybody's electric rates are spiking, some dramatically so. There isn't much new power generation being built here. Amazon is taking over an old US steel plan that had a dedicated gas generator, and MS supposedly has invested in restarting TMI's non-melted down reactor - i'll be amazed it that ever produces a drop of power though I'm sure billions will be spent on it.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 38.0 ms ] thread… and I heard on Friday that OpenAI is planning a data center 15 miles south of me. That can only make things worse.
There is still time to complete a solar install yourself and get federal+state tax breaks. Call up your energy provider, get connected to their distributed generation department, and submit the forms/documentation/plans they require. Then you build your system, get it inspected, the utility approves it and completes the hookup. ChatGPT makes all this fairly easy. I can upload my forms and the process to GitHub if anyone wants to see the process for NY state.
The simplest grid-tied system is solar panels + roof-mounting equipment + microinverters + a combiner box + a disconnect switch. This is enough to send solar power direct to the grid, assuming your microinverter supports the standards your power utility requires. You can do a PV+ESS (battery) system, but it's a ton more expensive (even assuming you DIY). It should be cheaper to do grid-tied projects, but many power utilities now mandate new standards for grid-tied devices that only the expensive inverters support.
If you do off-grid (which I believe there's still some tax breaks for, depending), you can build a PV+ESS system much cheaper, as the off-grid equipment doesn't require the more expensive standards. We're talking $3.5k vs $9k for the same system.
It would also be cheaper if we supported balcony solar the way Germany does. A big concern of mine is that poor people and people in apartments (~40% of Americans live in apartments) won't have the ability to supplement their bills with solar. If all the people with money and land/houses switch to solar, and the poor can't, the poor'll be propping up a big portion of the energy sector themselves, which is unsustainable.
https://www.apolloacademy.com/electricity-prices-have-grown-...
That statement seems to be upside-down. Energy factors into the cost of almost every other product, that is, the rise of energy prices causes much of the inflation elsewhere, which is then reflected by the CPI.
Also notice, 2022 is when the data-center and AI boom started, that too fits the premise of their culpability.
But then we live in a bizarre world where inflation is good, and the price of everything rising together is just wholesome and natural.
For example, Massachusetts rates are way up because New England politicians have spent more than a decade fighting natural gas infrastructure, especially pipelines that would bring cheap North American gas vs. LNG that is in short supply post-Russia/Ukraine war.
At the same time, MA politicians created the “Mass Save” program that’s effectively a giant boondoggle where utility ratepayers are subsidizing fly-by-night “energy efficiency” contractors who have no incentive to be efficient at all.
Meanwhile everybody's electric rates are spiking, some dramatically so. There isn't much new power generation being built here. Amazon is taking over an old US steel plan that had a dedicated gas generator, and MS supposedly has invested in restarting TMI's non-melted down reactor - i'll be amazed it that ever produces a drop of power though I'm sure billions will be spent on it.