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Aside from the fact that they are listening to propaganda, it's also a matter of framing. They think of solar as green weenie shit, the ineffectual limp dick replacement for tried and true all American machine power.
It all starts sounding different when you frame it as a security issue. Large scale solar will keep working through almost anything, even if parts of it are damaged. Most other forms of power need constant maintenance and can suffer catastrophic failure that renders the whole thing inoperable and costing a fortune to replace.
More importantly, it adds flexibility since it can be rapidly deployed and remains effective at smaller scales. The military wants solar because the alternative is often a gas generator that needs fuel shipped in by truck, a common target for attack. If your house has a solar roof and battery backup, a blackout isn't going to effect you. Power can be out for weeks and you'll barely notice, while previously the only option was a gas generator that only powers a few circuits in your house and is inevitably going to run out of fuel.
The more widespread solar and battery gets, the more secure we are as a civilization against large scale catastrophes that disrupt the grid, whether that's war, sabotage or natural disasters.
That's a great way of putting it.
We've had fewer power outages at our new offgrid house (0) than we had living anywhere else
Best way I've seen to explain solar power and EVs to a right winger is tell them I don't have to fill my car with expensive Saudi oil, I make good clean American electricity when the sun hits my roof and I use it to drive around. If oil was worthless because we have better forms of power, we could stop caring what some Arab princes think we should be paying to drive to work.
You can appeal to self-sustaing types or prepper logic as well. Way easier to make your own electricity then it is to extract and refine your own oil. EVs will remain operational much longer after societal collapse then gas powered vehicles will.
Electric motors also require far less maintenance and have far fewer ways they can break down. Oh, and if you live in a cold climate, you can warm it up in the garage without killing yourself.
And actually, if we reach a point where a solar roof and battery are the norm, and basically every vehicle on the road is an EV, civilization collapse becomes that much more unlikely. There's no longer a domino effect of the grid going down, pumps and refineries stopping, supply chains collapsing, and technology ceasing to function. Disruptions would be far more localized and their impact would be drastically reduced.
Isn't that one of the things many Americans want? To be self-sustaining and to not rely on others for their energy? Or am I getting this wrong? (silly european here)
A good friend of mine uses very little energy (just a smol fridge, a router, a smol TV and a phone charger) and he can actually get by easily with his solar panels up top and some batteries he got.
He barely has to purchase any energy anymore, sometimes even in winter.
Which is another security thing, I just didn't include it because I was typing on my phone and running out of time. But yes, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, and all the other OPEC countries that your conservative uncle likely has a long history of not liking will lose influence if their oil revenues plummet.
Also, gas goes bad and it can easily become contaminated by something as simple as moisture building up, after which it will damage engines if used. Not to mention that dangers of fire or leaks. The sun won't hit its expiration date for a few billion years, and for the most part the worst thing that can happen with solar is that efficiency goes down slightly if the panel needs cleaning.
the ineffectual limp dick replacement for tried and true all American machine power.
the fossil lobby has done a fantastic job of deceiving people about the superiority renewables bring to the generation problem. the fact that they still roll out bullshit like "you won't be able to watch TV at night" tells you everything.
Meanwhile, in REALITY, the US has installed record amounts of renewables and battery storage.
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/us-battery-energy-storage-deployments-jump/729248/
The real tragedy here is that the educational standards have been allowed to drop so far that "can't watch TV at night" is a legitimate issue with solar to some people.
While you're not wrong in the educational standards, I think a lot of this, in 2024, is obvious, no shit sherlock 'revelations', and the FUD should be combatted on every front - eliminating foreign oil influence, superior quality of life all over, rebuilding the grid, doing FUCKING ANYTHING about realistically reacting to climate change etc..
In 2024 USA, there is no such thing as,
no shit sherlock 'revelations'
There is no common sense anymore.
oh nooo no trash TV past 8 PM? What am I gonna do? Do something interesting? pfffff! Yeah right, as if
I'm fucking tired of treating these idiots with kid gloves. They have no curiosity and refuse to understand how it works? Good luck fixing that.
Oh the subject, EVs... Now you have a mobile energy bank that you can take with you and store/use that energy in emergencies.
Don't forget that big turbines can provide inertia into the power network, allowing large power spikes to occur without forcing equipment offline, that can be solved with hydro, flywheel batteries, windmills etc
Don't forget that big batteries can react in fractions of a second to large power demand spikes or dips, stabilising the grid far better than spinning steel can