The panels and inverters are cheaper, it is the labor to get those installed that has gotten expensive. Last year being handy and having found some money I paid cash ($20,000) for my off grid system and did all the work myself. 11,040 pvw, two 6500 watt 120v inverters, four 5.12 kWh batteries. Not quite enough storage so my plan is two more batteries and ten more 460 watt panels.

Paying to have that sized system installed can cost $40,000 or more and even more if you use their financing.

And what plans are being made for the elimination of fossil fuels? Solar works great in the West, except for at night.

Fortunately for me I live in an area (rural Florida) where I can install an off grid solar power system without anyone's approval so I did. With the tax credit it cost me $14,000, I did all the work myself. I will save about $2,000 a year so my payback time is 7 years. Paid cash, a good stock pick paid off.

My roof is not perfect but I have a large side yard. I installed a 11,000 watt solar power system on a ground mount last year. Florida so we get some cloudy days and I only have 20 kWh of battery storage. Off grid system with a transfer switch to the grid so when my batteries get low I just throw the switch.

My plan is 4,000 more watts of panels and 10 more kWh of batteries. Spent $20,000 so far, the extra will cost me about $7,000. Did all the work myself, 71 and have skills. Got my A/C humming, feels good to have the sun cooling my home.

But AT&T was paid to run fiber down my rural road. They were NOT paid to hook anyone up. The POTS lines are not maintained so anytime it rains (Florida, it rains often) the service goes out. Most people need a cell phone anyway so I canceled my land line. My mom (90) loved her land line but she is more rural then me. The county was doing road improvements and kept digging up her line. I had to get her a cell phone so I could keep in touch with her.

Teens without iPhones are being shamed because they do not have an iPhone. That is main point of the artifice. Old guy who has never had anything Apple so I couldn't care less.

Never bought or used anything Apple. My smartphone needs are fully met with Android phones. I can not imagine how going after Apple will help me one bit.

You must have a tiny, super efficient house. My 11,000 pvw system has no trouble supply all the electricity I need unless I want to run my electric space heaters or electric dryer. Or it is cloudy. I have only been using it for a week but I already know 20 kWh of battery storage is not enough. I will be buying two more 5.12 kWh batteries and 8 more 460 watt panels.

I live in a rural area so no regulations on what I can do on my property. Off grid system so I am not putting anything back into the grid. Right now my batteries are fully charged so panels are doing nothing. As it gets hotter I will be running my AC's more.

OK, what is the plan for feeding and keeping 320 million Americans warm without using fossil fuels? Whatever we are going to do should have taken place in 1946 when the goverment still had total control of the economy. If we are to save the planet for humanity there can be no more free market and little private property.

Which one of my children votes Democrat, the one with the PhD.

I graduated in 1970, I had zero help getting into college. SAT, no one said a word, I had no idea you had to go somewhere and sign up for it. No one got a single scholarship, the word college was never mentioned once in any of my classes and I was taking the top tier classes. Only those who's parents helped them went to college, mine didn't

Ten years later, same small town, my daughter and son are in school and both in the "gifted class". Every child is tested, once in middle school the push is for every student to go to college. My two graduated with full scholarships to FSU. Those without scholarships were handed loan papers to sign so they could go too.

So who is filling those jobs? Maybe too many are going to college and there simply are not enough jobs that require a degree. I graduated high school in 1970, even with all those young men only going to college to evade the draft (not me) only 23% of high school graduates went to college.

I have three children who have a college degree, one teaches college English, one is a lawyer, they use their degrees. My youngest son has a degree in Business Management but wires consoles for automated machinery.

Actually most people, like me, have much more panel capacity then battery capacity. I have 11,000 watts of panels but only 20 kWh of batteries. I recently finished installing my system and today is first day I have been using solar power in my home. I have my inverters and batteries in two detached rooms next to my home. I have been using power there for a month. I do my own work and have been slow wiring in a transfer switch.

My system is off grid so with the transfer switch I can easily switch to grid power if my batteries get low. My system will support 10 kWh more of batteries and another eight 450 watt panels. You have to over build both to have power during long cloudy spells. The batteries will be $2500 and the panels $2000.

Restrict, as in cause a reduction, not a complicate stop. Why yes, we do have to import almost EVERYTHING we need from China, something that is going to really bite us one day. Flying is a want, not a need. Force people to be be farmers, no, they can sit on their backsides and starve. Fossil fuel usage must be reduced (Devil's advocate) to stop climate change. That will crash the economy, goverment programs will necessary to prevent people from starving. People will be relocated and given jobs, some of those jobs will be growing food.

I have toted 100 lb sacks of potatoes all day, I have shoveled dirt and mud all day. Surely you have heard of the draft, they grabbed me up and forced me to do things I would rather have not done. You seem to like the military then you shouldn't mind a reinstatement of the Draft. Humans currently produce more than 350 million metric tons of plastic waste per year. Don't you think we could reduce that by a few million tons?

It will take an authoritarian goverment but much fossil fuel use can be eliminated. Restrict imports, not much need for shipping. Restrict flying, I am 71 and have never bought an airline ticket or has my wife. Farming, well, as a retired farmer I did enjoy driving my big diesel powered tractors. Mankind survived for thousands of years without tractors, we can again. There are hard hose traveling irrigation guns that run a quarter mile or more out and back, then disconnect from the main water line, mover over, reconnect to the water line and make another round. An electric tractor could do much the same thing. Many millions of Americans have BS jobs producing nothing, they can become farmers. They could use small battery powered tractors, horses, mules, and even (gasp) hand tools. My dad plowed with mules, didn't kill him, he passed at 93 two months ago. If we quit making ethanol, feeding cows, pigs, and so many chickens we will not need to grow so much corn and soybeans.

Military, no need to go into how wasteful that is. Plastics, eat fresh, buy less consumer goods, we can greatly reduce plastic use. Medicine, I am sure the Cubans can show us a few ways to reduce energy and plastic usage.