<story><title>Solar power is changing life deep in the Amazon</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2024/amazon-solar-panels-ecuador/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>epistasis</author><text>Here in the US, solar panels are cheapear per sqft than many building materials, in particular fences. In bulk, a 2.4m x 1.3m (roughly 8ft x 4pt) panel is &amp;lt; $100, or $3&amp;#x2F;sqft. If you make it operational with wiring and an inverter, I&amp;#x27;ve heard it&amp;#x27;s $5&amp;#x2F;sqft, and then you get electricity too. That&amp;#x27;s before any tax credits or subsidies. (Comparing right now to Home Depot pre-fab panels, metal is ~$20&amp;#x2F;sqft, composite materials are ~$10&amp;#x2F;sqft, and vinyl is $2-$4&amp;#x2F;sqft.)&lt;p&gt;Combine that with LFP lithium batteries getting to consumers at roughly $200&amp;#x2F;kWh in many places, and the idea of running big transmission wires for many developing areas just simply won&amp;#x27;t make financial sense when compared to microgrids backed with batteries.</text></comment>
<story><title>Solar power is changing life deep in the Amazon</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2024/amazon-solar-panels-ecuador/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>sigmar</author><text>Great article. Can&amp;#x27;t imagine what it would be like for this village to get so much new tech (solar radios, solar boats, solar-enabled internet) is such a short amount of time. In my childhood, getting access to an early Wikipedia after having to rely on physical encyclopedias was hugely transformative to how I learned. Boggles my mind to think about what it would be like to go from no internet to an internet with LLMs like chatgpt.</text></comment>