Not sure the times you worked on these, but certainly the older systems were less efficient and more costly.
I did the lease, so I’m essentially just paying for the power monthly. They guarantee any repairs to the panels or the roof. It’s working out well. I did a lot of math before I did it and it will save me money in almost any circumstance over using the grid 100%.
I’ve been very pleased. Wish I had more roof area. I did the solar lease through solar city (now Tesla). Usually it produces all we need or nearly so from May-September more or less.
That seems like an interesting and probably not difficult GCM experiment. Run the model with the same conditions a few times and just change the surface conditions (forested, farm, urban). I’d wager that’s been done. Wonder if anyone has determined how high the changed response extends. I’m sure it’s seasonally variable and I’d guess winter (due to generally higher wind speeds and reduced solar input) have the lowest “cap” to the UHI impact.
I find the “long range thread topic philosophy” discussion really uninteresting, but still way more interesting than “long range thread moderation philosophy” discussions of the past.
Well I’m feeling pretty optimistic on this year. Going to take a real vacation, eat inside at restaurants, let the kids stay with their grandparents, go to our neighborhood pool, etc.