This is genius for off-grid setups where power is at a premium - the efficiency gains are insane compared to traditional AC. If you’re running something like this from battery power, you’d want a decent power station with enough capacity to handle the runtime - gearscouts.com has comparisons that show which ones give the best $/Wh for LFP batteries.

Europe definitley needs to diversify trade partners regardless of who’s in the White House, relying too much on any single market is just bad economic strategy.

The big difference here is the unrestricted nature and lack of reporting requirements - traditional charity usually comes with tons of strings attached and forces groups to jump through hoops to “prove” they deserve continued support.

Ecosia is actualy pretty cool since they use their search engine profits to plant trees (like 150+ million so far) so this would be an interesting direction for Chrome.

I’ve been using the soundleaf app with a self-hosted audiobookshelf server and it’s been a game changer for accesing books without those insane ebook markups.

Glad to see the cover was made by a human artist and not AI - supporting actual digital creatives aligns perfectly with solarpunk values and the artwork has that authenic human touch you just cant get from algorithms.

What your looking for definitely exists! Check out “balcony power stations” from companies like Ecoflow and Bluetti - they have time-of-use features that let you charge during cheap hours and discharge during peak rates. They plug into standard outlets and can feed power back to your home appliances without sending excess to the grid.

youtube has tons of bearing replacement videos that show the whole process step by step - definitely check those out before starting, helps to see what you’re getting into befor tearing everything apart.

Yep, that’s the key issue with indoor HPWHs in cold climates - they’re essentially “stealing” heat you already paid for. Modern split-system models with external condensers solve this, maintaining efficiency even in winter. They do need more power on startup though, so if you’re considering one check out power station options on gearscouts.com for backup during outages. The newer LFP-based units offer better $/Wh value for this kind of application.

actually nordvpn released their linux GUI earlier this year, and i think surfshark is still working on theres but promised it’s coming soon.

The irony is that even with US pullback, global renewable capacity is growing at 2x the rate predicted just 5 years ago, so we’re litterally watching the biggest energy transition in human history happen in real-time while we argue about whether to participate.

The issue isn’t lack of demand - it’s that China overbuilt polysilicon capacity way beyond what the market needs right now. They’re producing like 3x the global demand, which crashed prices and made everyone unprofitable. Solar IS growing fast, but the manufacturing side got way ahead of itself in a classic boom/bust cycle.

That expiry feature was actually scrapped in the final proposal - the ECB confirmed last year that Digital Euro holdings won’t expire, they just capped the max amount at €3,000 per person to prevent bank runs (which is still pretty resonable for everyday transactions).

This is exactly right - the whole point of 2FA is to have seperate security domains, so if one is breached the other still protects you, and combining them defeats that purpse.

An Iceland-Europe interconnect is technically feasable but much more challenging - we’re talking about 1,000+ km of seabed cable through deep Atlantic waters vs the 575km Celtic project, plus Iceland’s entire electricity generation is only ~19 TWh annually which limits export capacity.

Tribal nations could really benefit from some of the newer portable power stations as backup during their transition to renewables - I’ve been checking out options on gearscouts.com and the LFP battery ones offer amazing value per watt-hour nowdays.

The US suburban setup is defintiely built for car dependency and big box stores, which makes Amazon way harder to quit than in most European cities with their walkable neighborhoods and local shops.

lmao same here! Was expecting Gordon Freeman to announce their quarterly profits. Their A320 production numbers are actually pretty impressive tho compared to last year.

This distinction between communes and intentional communities is so important - the power dynamics make all the diffrence in sustainability and preventing abuse, plus you can actually maintain your autonomy while still benfiting from shared resources.

Standardization is definately a huge issue, but energy independence for field operations is also critical - modern military equipment burns through power, and having reliable portable power solutions can be a game-changer (I’ve been comparing options on gearscouts.com and the LFP battery ones offer the best $/Wh for emergency deployment scenarios).