640 bytes ought to be enough for anyone.

I dislike exams in general, too much pressure put on one event. I had issues on some exam days. Coursework seems better, if it can be reasonably protected from having the parents do the work.

I read somewhere some years ago that it was the norm to appeal any grade that fell below expectation on an exam, and often re-marking the work would raise it. Is that true?

I think the GPP meant Tesla producing sodium batteries for grid or home storage, not for vehicles.

Sodium doesn't make sense for vehicles.

But if we use sodium for static storage, a lot more lithium will be freed up for EVs.

You don't see an issue with looking at someone's skin colour and deciding that they are more of a flight risk?

Are you saying you think that the solar panels will never pay for themselves? Because once they have covered their own costs, that energy is free. Hard to see how petrol and ICE consumables could be cheaper than free.

Wholesale prices are negative.

That is not passed down to the consumer level.

When PG&E is trying to shed excess power, they are still charging me the normal high daytime rate. I have no incentive to help them soak up the surplus.

That's millions of people.

Lots of people do that too.

If you invest in a mining rig, will you want to leave it idle 98% of the time?

Same for an osmotic purifier. They are expensive and need steady baseload power to be cost-effective.

Neither is effective as demand peakers.

Hydrogen generators are cheap and can suck up a lot of power, but you need to store the H2 and find a market for it.

Batteries are not currently cost-effective.

We need sodium batteries for grid storage.

RTFA. The brownouts are in the summer. The excess solar is in the spring.

Wind turbines, hydro, stored energy, gas, and nuclear (Diablo Canyon recently received a 5-year license extension).

Desalination plants are expensive. It's silly to build one and then only run it for 50 hours per year when energy prices go negative. You wanna run it 24/7, but then it's baseload and contributes nothing to solving the surplus energy problem.

AI data centers are even more expensive. They need clean, reliable baseload power.

Adding more solar is good. We need more.

TFA talks about prices going negative, but that happened 21 days last Spring and only for one or two hours. 98% of the time, it isn't a problem.

There are many solutions:

1. Storage: Pumped hydro and/or peaker batteries.

2. Long-distance HVDC to sell the surplus to other states.

3. Variable pricing. I currently charge my EV from 2-4 AM, when prices are lowest. I'm happy to switch to mid-afternoon charging if PG&E gives me an incentive.

Most economists believe that inflation is over-estimated, so median incomes have actually risen even more that the official figures.

Poor food choices are a completely different topic.

There's plenty of quality food if you want to buy it, and it's cheaper as well. Potatoes cost less than potato chips, carrots cost less than candy, and water is cheaper than soda.

The healthiest food is available in the neighborhoods with plenty of immigrants.

In other news, you're more likely to receive a longer prison sentence if the judge hasn't had lunch yet.