The “problem” with solar is that you can’t meter it. Nobody has yet found a way to sell you electricity from sunlight today and then sell it to you again tomorrow, which is what they’re accustomed to doing and believe is their right to do somehow. That’s why it’s so incredibly disruptive.
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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Genuinely thank you for this explanation. I never thought about how this is basically a fish (oil) vs fishing pole (solar) situation. Oil companies don’t want to give you the fishing pole to do it yourself, they want to charge you fish by fish, gallon by gallon of oil to maximize profits.
That is until solar-electric companies start banking electricity in huge batteries, then meting it out for a fee. Pretty sure that hellscape is in the works.
The thing is, unless governments really bring the hammer down on the installation of PV panels and batteries (and I live in FL -- the sunshine state -- where it can be very difficult to get permits and insurance for PV panels) or force you to buy a certain percentage of power from your utility (I could DEFINITELY see my state government try some BS like that), eventually many people will simply not need coal, gas or oil. As batteries become cheap enough, more people will install them, source more power directly from the sun, charge their cars with it, etc. It really is the endgame, the fossil execs are just trying to string us along for one more generation to squeeze every last dollar out of the market.
Shit look at all the freedom the Republicans have been doing in Florida. That all sounds awesome, glad they protect the poor ~~Shin-ra~~ Power Company from their exploitative customers!
Look into flywheel energy storage. Fairly cheap to manufacture and made of inert materials that don't damage the environment. Perfect for storing wind.
I don't see oil companies pivoting to solar.
We are seeing them pivot to Hydrogen because it comes from oil.
True, but a lot of Aristocracies didn't pivot to oil immediately either, and look how that turned out for them when the world wars started.
Hydrogen because it comes from oil.
and because it requires a large, centralized infrastructure they can control. if you could pull hydrogen out of the air cheaply, anywhere, they wouldn't be in on hydrogen.
meanwhile it's really a dead end anyway, barring leaps in fuel cell technology. who wants to deal with the pressures and infrastructure to move around cryogenic liquids?
People are already morons with gasoline, and they want to add pressure lol?
it's a dead end, and a silly one. but big petroleum will use it to muddy the waters and keep pumping oil
I've been seeing a lot of research on reversible fuel cells, hydrogen safety, and using hydrogen as storage for renewable surpluses. I'm curious to know what sources lead you to believe that hydrogen is "a dead end".
I specifically dislike it's comparison as a replacement for gas and ev vehicles. end users handling cryogenic fuels or handling fuels that could potentially be highly explosive don't strike me as winners.
you're changing the narrative somewhat with the caveat of 'as storage for renewable surpluses' - this is NOT what the hydrogen production that traditional petroleum companies are focused on; there is potential - especially if the hydrogen can be collected from the air, reducing the need for storage infrastructure and handling. But moving it around? Trucking it around lol? at cryogenic temps and pressures?
hard to justify with such very small energy density.
Exactly, true, The USA’s-EU’s Rich-SuperRich Economic Classes/Owners are looking at NOT clean enough Hydrogen Power (the latest version does not come through Oil, but mining <yes, as current solar panels do> & Etc. other bad for Living Earth & All Living Beings still is required, so not as clean as they claim) for the future. With that said they want to continue to drain every last bit oil energy profits, before that.
Your analysis assumes American decisions are made for American benefits, treating America like a monolith, or a single actor.
America has capitulated governance to a minority of ultra-wealthy psychopaths who have repeatedly proven they will fuck over anything and everything, including America as a whole, and any segment of its population. Trump is deperately trying to stop renewables and support oil and coal even though they are less economic and advantageous in the immediate here and now, let alone benefit America in the future. Its scorched earth psychopathy.
Not really. While the expertise in their manufacture is pretty concentrated, you can build a factory almost anywhere in theory. They don't have a lot of exotic materials and the amount they need will probably drop in the future, so there won't be a real solar equivalent to the petro-state. Maybe some places with a handy combination of sun and mineral resources could be desirable industrial regions, but it wouldn't encourage war in the same way.
This. Much of human history has been reliant on renewable energy (firewood, food, heating, etc), and it is only the past 200 years or so that fossilized biomass has been a thing. Exotic materials can also be avoided with techniques such as concentrated solar power for high temperature manufacturing (see Odeillo solar furnace), manufacturing at sites of energy generation (eg wind mills for "milling"), and Stirling engines.
ATTENTION: ILLEGAL WEAPONS OF MASS (ENERGY) PRODUCTION DETECTED [solar panels]
PREPARE TO BE LIBERATED
PLEASE DO NOT RESIST
And that's of course why they're so very interested in Greenland, because of all the sunlight.
So the thing about solar and electronic grade silicon is...
it's made from dirt. You don't even have to dig for it. Quartz is high yield, but it's present in Sand, Silt, and Clay and makes up about 28% of mineral soil in the earth's crust. You crush it, weight separate it, melt it down, crush it, weight separate it, melt it down again, and finally crystalize it using a crystal seeding method.
I think we are already there; obviously I cannot agree with you more.
‘Economic Update’s Host Richard Wolff does a awesome job of explaining this, with intersecting USA is failing, like Rome started fail & fell apart.