No one is better at keeping hope alive than Rebecca Solnit, the historian and essayist whose *Hope in the Dark* got me through the first Trump administration and whose *A Paradise Built In Hell* inspired my novel *Walkaway*:

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

@Kierkegaanks Lucky for you the image is CC BY and you are free to remix it if you would like a different one. Here's the hi-rez, please do show me yours when you've finished it:

Demand destruction vs fuel-superceding infrastructure

pluralistic.net/2026/05/04/hope-in-the-dark/#hormuzed-int... Alexander Rodchenko's classic Russian constructivist 'books' advertising poster; Lilya Brik's face has been replaced with Greta Thunberg's, and instead of shouting the word 'books,' a spray of geometric sunbeams are emanating from her mouth. Superimposed and beneath her is a Soviet propaganda poster of a furiously pointing Lenin. Lenin's skin is Cheeto orange and he wears a straw-yellow Trump wig. Image: Stefan Müller (climate stuff) (modified) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greta_Thunberg_spricht_be...(51512266778).jpg CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Flickr (www.flickr.com)

[wall_e@ioc.exchange]

@pluralistic I can tell you from anecdotal evidence here in Germany...a LOT of people seem to have invested in private photovoltaic installations in Q1/Q2 of 2026.

One of the big online solar retailers here currently has shipping dispatch times of 24 - 29 workdays (massive increase from previous dispatch times of ~5-7 days).

When people buy these installations, especially the bigger, non-balcony systems they are planned for a lifetime of ~15 years.
That's roughly 8,000-10,000kWh of external energy demand destroyed per household per year!

And honestly I'd say forever, because it seems very unlikely that after 15 years of getting used to free solar energy you'd go back. Especially considering future technological improvements and falling unit prices for both solar panels and battery storage.

I think Rebecca Solnit is absolutely right here.

[kevinmarks@xoxo.zone]

@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic it's doing that in midwinter? What's it going to be like next summer?

[alpacamale@social.cologne]

@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic Welcome to the solarpunk era

[bsdphk@fosstodon.org]

@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic

Didn't somebody say something about "Electricity too cheap to meter"

[cptbutton@dice.camp]

@pluralistic

In the US, at least, another factor may be hatred of utility companies. In the US, being natural monopolies, utilities often take advantage of that by being arrogant, greedy, & unresponsive to users.

There is a lot of anger & hatred of utilities floating around, but not doing anything because there is no realistic alternative.

Given a choice that is reliable and not too much more expensive, lots of people will go off the grid just so they can give the utility company the finger.

[andniz@c.im]

@NewtonMark out of curiosity, if you don't mind - what were the costs (for the battery and the rest)?

I've talked to my father recently who wasn't very happy with his initial investment in panels from 3 years ago. He was complaining about the utility company's rules (which really sucked and made this not cost effective), but also the cost of battery.

And I guess there's a lot less sunshine coming to Poland than to Australia!

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

@pluralistic

If somebody hasn't done so already, I think Solnit's article (referenced in Cory's blog/post) is worth surfacing:

Truth, Consequences, Climate, and Demand Destruction

"This is how the attack by one petro-state (ours) on another (Iran's) may be turning out to be very bad for petroleum, because the only thing history loves more than a surprise party is irony." The Crisis The biggest news is always the climate news, and sometimes it's so big

Meditations in an Emergency (www.meditationsinanemergency.com)

#Energy #FossilFuels #ClimateCrisis #USpol #Iran #StraitOfHormuz

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

"the sun and wind will never be blockaded"

Gods, I wish people wouldn't say shit like this. There is almost certainly some state-level actor who would take this as a challenge....

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic

How big is that 42 kWh storage? I mean, what kind of cubic does it occupy? (Asking for a condo-dweller whose local utility can't be arsed to bury their powerlines, but who threatens "proactive blackouts" on windy days as a hedge against wildfire.) (Who is me.)

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

@pluralistic

Wouldn't it be just •delightful• if we woke up someday in the not-too-distant future, & fossil fuel prices had fallen off a cliff bc mostly nobody bothers with them anymore?

(I'm now pondering fertilizer & plastics replacements with renewables. Dunno if the urban algal farming I've read about would would scale, but it def gives me itchy thoughts....)

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

"They seem to have been unprepared for the reactions to the invasions of both Iran and Minneapolis"

This sounds like a line from a Douglas Adams book, and yet, here we are....

I am sooo embarrassed by & ashamed of my country, right now....

[wall_e@ioc.exchange]

@NewtonMark @alpacamale @pluralistic

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

Holy shit, this essay. Go read it, it's great!

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

@pluralistic

"Strait of #Epstein," , !

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

"A salt-Ion battery"

PLEASE tell me somebody's already done this one...?

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

@pluralistic

I hope somebody's keeping an eye out for the enshittification potentials in renewables, so that we can head those off when the Predator Class starts trying to enclose those commons. (I think I've seen some reports of those kinds of things already being tried, though not yet at national scale.)

Relatedly, I'm looking forward to the day when solar becomes bicycle-level back-yard tech that's essentially impossible to enclose.

#SolarEnergy #Renewables

[guillaumerossolini@infosec.exchange]

@cavyherd it’s already there, if you count the “virtual batteries” offerings that made no investment whosoever in any infrastructure (batteries or otherwise)

@pluralistic

[amiserabilist@beige.party]

@Kierkegaanks

on a side note:

[kierkegaanks@beige.party]

@amiserabilist prelude to the dictatorship of the proletariat?