In 1979 my uncle wrote a book about solar power — or more specifically, although I haven’t read it, about how the fossil fuel industry had too much influence on the future. 45 years later, solar panels are now cheap and widely deployed. Nearly free energy, falling like rain. It can change so much.

@manton I am struck by how many solar farms I'm seeing here in Minnesota whenever we drive up to the cabin or other rural areas. Seems to double every year.

@patrickrhone i keep wanting to start designing some kinda solar farm, and checking into how much it would cost to implement.

@patrickrhone Same here. From my limited understanding, in the last 5+ years the price has really gone down. We have so much land, even shifting a tiny percentage from cows to solar would be dramatic.

@sergio_101 We are thinking about having some installed on our garage roofs and two of our properties. We know folks that have done it and they seem very happy. Especially the one with we know with electric vehicles that charge from the solar/home battery setup they have.

@manton I kick the idea around every five years or so. I think the biggest expense is the solar panels. The rest is pretty much off the shelf. I also daydream about writing a raspberry pi controller make the panels track the sun to get maximum efficiency.

@patrickrhone We've been exploring solar + battery as well. We live in the country and, for a time, thought we should have a generator. But that becomes another thing to fuel and maintain. Now, I'd much rather put that effort and expense towards solar.