putting the home backup battery to use (power out)!

@susankayequinn yikes!

at some point, we will decide to stop pushing the "kill everything" button

people will come to understand we can stop the slow violence of capitalism

and that life will be a lot better, even as the climate disasters that are the legacy of capitalism continue on (in fact, surviving those disasters will be more likely in a world where capitalism and necropoliticians aren't killing everyone)

@susankayequinn @weezmgk @czds less than a month after we moved into our new home, we had a four day ice storm in 2021 February, and a four day power outage as the ice pulled down power lines faster than the local PUD could repair them. That’s when we made modular, expandable #BESS a priority, with the EV part of the strategy. Took time: buy a little, save, buy more. Now we also have a small solar photovoltaic (8x410W panels) and vertical axis wind turbines generators (5x500W)

@jadp oh, I want to get wind turbines! What model to you have and how do you find them? Are they noisy?

@weezmgk @czds

@susankayequinn @kim_harding

I spent several years working with Global Footprint Network, and the takeaway from those years is the we are imposing excessive demands on resources - to accommodate current consumption patterns of the relatively wealthy.

So a question we should be asking is - if everyone did "X", is it sustainable? Looking at the full range of impacts to ecosystems & to human quality of life.

And I've changed my consumption patterns a lot .

@susankayequinn @kim_harding
And when it comes to energy resilience and security of supply, everyone having their own back up system is very likely the most costly and least resource efficient strategy.

From an equity perspective, there are many who cannot afford it, so the expectation that this is a universal solution is misplaced.

That said, I fully understand and respect the fact that for many people, your solution is appropriate, and may be the only viable option.

@susankayequinn @weezmgk @czds we can’t recommend these yet. Too new. Generic, through Amazon (couldn’t find anything like them elsewhere). They were advertised as 500W but labeled as 100W. The label also said 4 blades, but they have the expected three. We’ll post more this summer, when we have more data. They are about as noisy as a newer dishwasher.

@susankayequinn @weezmgk @czds the distributor gave a nice discount because of the discrepancy, as an incentive not to return them.

@susankayequinn @weezmgk @czds we would love these

https://www.flowerturbines.com/

But a two year wait, and we wanted to install before the tax credits went away

@susankayequinn @weezmgk @czds we really wanted these, but they aren’t for the consumer yet, just businesses

https://airiva.com/

#windWall

@PaulWermer @kim_harding

I very much understand that there are no universal solutions — I say that a lot and I mean it. However, there are also no *permanent* solutions until we get to something that looks sustainable and we do NOT know what that is right now (we cannot), and so moving toward more sustainable solutions (even if they're temporary) is super important.

First, get the gas cars off the road and transform the transport sector—that means EVs and public transit (and bikes/ebikes!)...

@PaulWermer @kim_harding
...at the same time, work on densification so public transit will work better.

Also decarbonize & change our food systems, production systems, fast fashion, fishing, etc. Work for justice.

Everything has to move in the right direction all at once. A sustainable world (that I spend full time imagining/writing) looks nothing like today but we can't get there in one step.

I can't say everything in a Masto post... this is why I write books.

@jadp hey, I'm a small investor in the flower turbines!
@weezmgk @czds

@susankayequinn in this case I live in BC, Canada. The energy system is managed by Crown Corporation (government non-profit), known as BC Hydro.

So in my case, it's actually a different, but weirder confluence of issues. The V2L thing is actually specific to my region, but they're just behind, if I lived 2 miles over, it would all be fine. But the bigger issue at the provincial level is really one of mandates and priorities.

BC Hydro was basically designed to take energy from hydroelectric dams and feed that energy to downstream consumers. They have a grander mission around providing "clean electricity" to everyone at low cost. But in the current context of "we operate a bunch of dams", I think that vision is different from what a solarpunk enthusiast would expect.

To their credit, they launched a plan in 2025 to start upgrading things. But it's a 20-year plan and it's literally in discussion phases right now.

@susankayequinn @weezmgk @czds From what I’ve read, Flower Turbines are among the best. I also like how they customize the electronics for your situation, and the bouquet arrangement to allow symbiotic interactions among a group of turbines. A bouquet of Flower Turbines as a “wall” of a solar pavilion would be neat.

@gatesvp in general, I think Canada is very far ahead on the US, but there will always be hiccups on the way to a better future. I have tolerance for that! (I also think depending on hydro in a warming world has a lot of updates in thinking that need to be done)

@susankayequinn and actually, that's already a reality they've been facing. They have had some years where they inputted hydrocarbons from elsewhere because the snowpack was simply too low.

And if you follow through some of the documents, you also getting things like a solar association specifically asking for support. BC has a ton of islands and remote communities.

In a lot of those places, the best way to deliver resilience is to provide local generation and storage. I think it's part of why this 20-year plan is a big deal. Because it's not an easy plan to make, and it definitely involves a hydro company moving outside of their specific expertise.

@susankayequinn I wish there were more of us because it's looking like Hyundai won't be selling more in the US except the N version...

@wellschmaltz

@susankayequinn If it's not another crossover SUV or pickup, Americans don't seem to care