The Bubble

A consequence of mounting the panels above the garage is that they are highly visible to anyone driving along Frye Creek. Even the theoretical pedestrians using the sidewalks can't help but notice them. It is my only south facing roof.

I have long-term concerns not about theft (although I will always worry about the inverter growing legs), but vandalism. I don't know how Sharp panels handle river rocks.

That said, I am utterly shocked that, considering as much time as I'm outside or in the garage with the door open, more or less 'available to the public', over the past year, I've only received two queries from curious onlookers. Two.

One was from this arrogant prick a few houses down, who used to speed up and down Frye Creek by motorcycle, and then on Franklin Blvd. He was very close to having a river rock in his front living room until suddenly he up and left. He asked me about PV during my installation. I was taken aback, but I offered what I could. He thought it cool a homeowner was doing it.

The second was a lady in a Cadillac...she lived somewhere close, I don't know where, and the only thing she asked was about the free electricity I'm getting and how much did it reduce my SMUD bill. I don't fault her for this, I suppose...considering I spent inordinate effort to calculate it myself. But both times, their emphasis wasn't clean energy. In fact, neither even brought it up, and I couldn't even goad it out of them.

My little experiment has left me with the inescapable conclusion that all this capital flowing into green ventures, NBCs the 'greening of America', green beer companies and green carpet cleaning panel trucks -- all this will likely become the next housing, stock market, or commodities bubble. In my opinion, the true green solution is a restructuring of our living arrangements and consumption patterns. While I don't discount all the everyday efforts people are making, I don't see a switch to biodegradable forks in the cafeteria as sufficiently green enough to cure the ills of our local problems. And people know this.

As soon as real constraints are presented to the American Consumer, all green bets are off.