890
- shut off cameras
- redirect panels to infrastructure
- ???
- profit
Someone do the math for me pls
- Typical flock panel ~50W
- Typical flock battery ~ 150Wh
- Rough number of flock cameras: 120,000
- Assuming each panel is producing power constantly:
- 120,000 * 50 = 6MW of power, or ~ 3000 homes.
- At 20% efficiency (e.g. cloudy days), that's ~ 400 homes during day time
- The 18 MW battery capacity could potentially make that a 24 hour period
And the rest of the math:
The US currently is installing around 7GW of solar power. Per quarter.
7,000MW. Over 1,000x the entire output of all Flock camera solar panels, being added to the US every 3 months.
The government and a myriad of other entities are currently rolling out green infrastructure 4,000x as fast as flock.
Always admire that one spark of light in the endless void.
The lack of understanding in this post astounding.
Infrastructure?
It’s a self contained unit, the battery is in the unit, not elsewhere, and it actually saves tearing up roads to run power to these units.
Legit it's sinking a single pole into the ground that only needs line of sight to the thing it's keeping an eye on. Total maybe 3sqft of space taken up.
It's the cheapest option that has the most freedom of placement.
As opposed to solar farms which require vast plots of land, power substations to make the power usable by the grid, and a lot more upkeep.
Gee, I WONDER why so many of them have gone up instead of solar farms...
Fuck flock and the government but this was a dumb attempt at a gotcha that just doesn't make sense if you think about if for more than 5 seconds.
Also, solar farms ARE going up.
There’s about 1,000x as much solar capacity going up every quarter in the US as there is total solar capacity on all flock cameras combined.
Conversely though, there is ways to use the same tech to provide cheaper infrastructure as well though.
My city they use them to provide lighted crosswalks, and as well as flashing stops signs where they are less noticeable. So to have Flock and NOT those, there’s some axes to grind.
Makes you wonder how much could we alleviate strain on the grid by upgrading existing things like this that can be self contained.
Exactly, if the climate is friendly to it, there could be a lot more energy independent infrastructure besides stop signs, crosswalks, and mass surveillance and control mechanisms.
I’m a little on the fence, I live where it’s cold and the batteries are a common fail point, plus long nights need larger batteries and more panels to charge them too. So depending on how important it is, it should probably be hooked up to the grid as well. A little redundancy, but a properly integrated system could provide to the grid when there’s extra (long summer days and short nights) and take when it’s needed (long winter nights.)
As opposed to solar farms which require vast plots of land, power substations to make the power usable by the grid, and a lot more upkeep.
We already have vast plots of land being taken up by parking lots and buildings. There is a hospital in my area that put solar panels over the parking lot. It is really nice. Your car interior stays cooler. Many buildings have their AC cooling fans on the roof. Solar panels would also shade those and help make them more efficient. All of these areas already have a hookup to the grid. Substation may need to be modified but it isn't as dramatic as you make it sound. Also everything has upkeep costs, including oil refineries and power plants.
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Brothers and sisters, there's free solar panels and batteries with every flock camera!
Honestly, I brought them up the other day. You know with Halloween coming up, it is a great day to treat myself to a small solar panel and what I assume is a decent battery.
Damn you, I didn't need another new hobby!
uhh i think these solar panels will be pretty distinct so they're basically a way to give the police a clear proof that you did it.
What do you mean? I bought these off my junk guy. And fuck no I ain't telling you Fernando's details, not even his real name, he gets me cheap electronics
I mean, possession is 9/10 of the law. Possessing stolen goods is a crime, whether you stole them or not.
What stolen goods? Fernando deals in legit junk
I can personally vouch for Fernando, he's good
a vouching for from some kind of guy is as good as a vouching for from i don't know, the president of the galaxy or something
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Meanwhile here in Australia, subsidised Solar, battery, Heat pump water heaters and AC units.
But don't worry, the gas loby is trying to get in on the action and return
solar panels have been used on communication infrastructure since 1960. for example telegraph wires and their respective later versions (copper cable, fiber optics cable, etc) because these cables often run through the middle of nowhere and need a small amount of continuous power to operate. so solar + batteries is the least-maintenace, highest-availability, cheapest option. nobody wants to travel 1000km into the woods to replenish a diesel generator.
--> electronics have been using solar panels since forever. this is nothing new.
Flock has installed about 100k units with 45w of solar capacity, for about 5MW of capacity.
The US is installing about 7GW of new solar quarterly.
Seriously, the kind of “gotcha” statement that OP is going for is really harmful to the movement because it’s so out of touch and incorrect.
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If we just redirected all the solar energy from the flock cameras back into the grid we could power the average American home for 2 whole milliseconds!
Think of the savings!
I'm all for hating on flock and the government but this is an extremely dumb comparison that doesn't actually make sense. Flock isn't the government and the amount of solar generation for their shit cameras is nothing compared to real grid demand
IIRC majority of cameras are paid for by governments and installed on public lands so the government bit is appropriate. Fun fact, HOA's are considered governments, although those cameras are on private property.
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I love how if the government reads this post, then all Flock cameras will henceforth be outfitted with coal-powered steam generators.
technically it is a private (public?) company and not the government, but I like the point
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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2026
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