The photo at left comes along with the comment:
A creative Tesla owner recently took sustainability into his own hands by installing a solar roof on his Model 3, testing whether it could generate enough energy to charge the electric vehicle independently—and it worked. The modification integrates solar panels seamlessly onto the car’s roof, capturing sunlight and converting it into electricity to supplement or even fully power the vehicle’s battery.
I saw a Prius with PV roof at a car show in 2009 when I first got interested EVs. They look cool, and if that’s important to you, please be my guest.
The reason they are a rarity though is math and physics. At most places on the planet, Earth receives about 1000 Watts/square meter. Assuming 8 hours per day of high-grade sunshine, 3.5 square meters of PV, an efficiency of 25%, that’s 250 Watthours/day. This translates to about one mile per day for the typical EV.
If you want to fully power your 100 KWhr Tesla, that’s 400 days, just over a year–not too compelling.
https://www.2greenenergy.com/2026/01/12/roof-mounted-solar-pv-for-your-ev/
I join those who say that the human race has evolved to be tribal and selfish. We are largely indifferent to the needs of others, and the capitalist society we’ve built has only served to reenforce this.
As Tom Waits observed, “We’re monkeys with money and guns.”
Now, are there some extremely decent and kind people spread around the globe? Of course. But they tend not to be the billionaires who make all the important decisions as to the how our culture will conduct itself.
Well, never is a long time, as they say.
Yet imagine this scenario, which is quite possible:
Trump is impeached and removed. Almost immediately, there is an incredible outpouring of information on an additional set of crimes committed by Trump and his administration. Simultaneously, the U.S. morphs into a social democracy, and its people enjoy quality education, access to healthcare, and prosperity, not unlike those in Northern Europe and elsewhere around the globe.
Yes, there will always be Republicans promising mass deportations and whatever else appeals to a dwindling MAGA base, but I would think they will have one hell of a hard time winning a national election.
The GOP can say the American economy is skyrocketing. But then there’s that nasty little piece of reality that people can’t afford groceries and are suffering financially more generally.
Or they can day that people are suffering financially, but it’s Biden’s fault. Oops. Biden left office 588 days ago.
Or they can say that the war in Iran has driven up gas prices, but that will turn immediately because we’ve won the war. Yikes. What can we say about all these bombs?
Or they can say that all the racial hatred and divisiveness is Obama’s fault. No, that’s problematic, since he’s been gone for almost 10 years.
Trump supporters may not be too sharp, but even they are having trouble accepting all this crap.
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