How Tesla’s Elon Musk became the master of fake business

[rustled]

Queen K, I think I've explained pretty thoroughly what I see as the environmental problem with using solar where hydroelectric is an option, and with subsidizing the purchase of solar panels for those who can afford them, and with the potential for increased costs for those who must continue to rely on the grid now fed by a plethora of IPPs.

I realize you don't recognize these issues as problems, but I am hoping others who are considering purchasing a solar panel to reduce their own costs, or to help the planet, (or both), will at least think about them before they make their investment.

I have looked into the solar shingles, and used the calculator provided by the manufacturer to examine the financial ROI. It's only available for US zip codes, so I used Oroville WA in my sampling. The results are posted elsewhere on this forum, in a thread mj started (something about solar roofs being cheaper than asphalt, as I recall). Suffice it to say, even with the subsidies the calculator built in, there's no cost benefit. (I tried a zip for southern California and there is a cost benefit, again with the subsidies built into the calculator.) As I recall, even with the subsidies in the calculator, asphalt is still a better financial investment for most people living in Oroville. Perhaps there are greater subsidies available here in BC, but it seems inappropriate, to me, to ask other taxpayers to contribute heavily to something expensive that I want to buy for myself, for whatever reason.

Using that calculator gave me a cost comparison. However, there was no weight given to whether it's better for the environment to use a solar panel for our own power than it would be to use Washington's grid power from the Grand Coulee, which BMW factors this energy as suitable for the carbon fiber they source for the automobiles with door panels made from hemp, compared to the pollution caused sourcing the components for solar panels, manufacturing, shipping, disposal, etc., along with the batteries if we choose to use them to store the solar-generated power.

Here in BC, we must consider all of this if we wish our investment to be an environmentally preferable choice.

It's fine for us to champion something we believe in, and to encourage others to use their resources to support it. I know how I've felt when I've championed something that turned out to do more harm than good, and I know how my friend felt when she realized she'd invested in an EV under the false assumption she was doing something very good for the environment.

I won't be trying to convincing people to buy or not to buy Musk's products. To me, this is a personal choice, with each person deciding what makes sense to them in terms of which subsidies they feel they're comfortable taking advantage of, how concerned they are about increasing grid power costs for those who cannot afford solar panels, and how important the environmental costs are, to them. I'm simply asking people reading this thread to take a good hard look at these costs before they invest.