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Falling panel prices lead to global solar boom, except for the US

(arstechnica.com)
249 points Jtsummers | 4 comments | 30 Oct 25 16:32 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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mmooss ◴[30 Oct 25 17:14 UTC] No.45762412[source]▶
As I wrote elsewhere, the US government and economy are now essentially a private equity takeover for a large segment of wealthy business: Squeeze out as much money as possible short term - including by issuing debt againts its assets, slashing and burning any costs regardless of ROI and with no regard for the future, and leave the bankrupt husk for someone else to deal with.

The treatment of fossil fuels and renewables fits: Block the obviously more economical and better long-term solution in order to shovel money toward the entrenched wealthy. That it sabotages the future due to climate change and economic inefficiency doesn't seem to be a significant factor to them.

I forgot, one of the entrenched corporate wealthy told us that climate change isn't a big deal, and we should send money to his and his friends for solutions.

I'm not anti-business; in fact, quite the opposite: These policies block a free market and the brilliant new businesses that can thrive and deliver solutions to everyone.

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seanmcdirmid ◴[30 Oct 25 17:17 UTC] No.45762459[source]▶
If only Musk didn't turn out to be such a twitt, Tesla was really supposed to be part of the solution but somehow Musk managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The future is pretty much in China now as far as green energy tech and consumption goes. Two bad elections and the US has basically lost world leader status in just over a decade.

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1. beloch ◴[30 Oct 25 19:42 UTC] No.45764410[source]▶
I have to agree with you. I've heard competing claims that Musk is doing, with Tesla, something similar to what he did with Hyperloop: Promise a futuristic but ultimately impractical solution to forestall those trying to proceed with proven solutions (i.e. bullet trains) that might compete with his own business.

However, it's becoming increasingly apparent that the above paragraph ascribes genius to what is more simply explained by incompetence. It's more likely Musk believed he could make Hyperloop work, but couldn't. Similarly...

- Musk thought he could buy an election and gain the inside track for his companies, but was too witless to maintain good relations with the politician he bought.

- He bought Twitter seemingly on a lark and proceeded to rapidly run it into the ground.

- He put a bunch of script-kiddies in charge of DOGE, which promptly made a mess of an entire government and created a historically massive deficit while gutting government services.

- He alienated the core customer demographics that had formerly been one of Tesla's mains sources of income. (The other being government grants and subsidies which... whoops.)

Now, Tesla's shareholders are weighing whether or not a man with Musk's recent track record is worth a trillion dollar pay package[1]. It's gobsmacking that they even need to think about this.

So, no, Musk is not some evil genius undoing green energy by deliberately creating a false solution that fails to deliver. He's just a garden variety mediocrity who has been promoted far past his capabilities or character and has been utterly undone by the resulting ego trip. He's an object lesson in just how much damage the wrong person in the right place and time can do to the world.

[1]https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/musk-could-leave...

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2. tim333 ◴[30 Oct 25 21:34 UTC] No.45765650[source]▶
>worth a trillion dollar pay package. It's gobsmacking that they even need to think about this.

I think you mischaracterize that deal. It's more if he can hype the stock from $1.3t to $8.5t he gets a 15% cut, in stock. It wouldn't be a bad deal for TSLA speculators.

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3. ethbr1 ◴[31 Oct 25 00:55 UTC] No.45767227[source]▶
As long as they get out before Elon gets his chunk and is no longer incentivized to keep the lie going.
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4. nasmorn ◴[31 Oct 25 17:21 UTC] No.45774426{3}[source]▶
He will still be incentivized given all the stock he will have