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Comment by cbr | Hacker News Reader

     He wanted to be a pioneer, a leader of some sort.
     This was more important to him than "saving the
     planet." His goal of going off grid was to position
     himself as a hero, a frontrunner. Instead of being
     happy that the island is converting to solar at a
     pace that exceeds its stated goals, he just feels
     cheated of his goal of being a role model.

That's harsh. If you put hundreds of hours into doing something you thought was really valuable, and it turned out that it wasn't actually valuable, I think you'd be sad too.

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it may be harsh but I feel it's accurate. the same lone hero sentiments that causes the "not invented here syndrome" led this guy to toil hundreds of hours when he could have stashed that ego and contributed to the island's efforts of renewable energy.

As I read the article, he went off grid to show everyone else that it was a viable idea. Meanwhile, the island power grid did some pretty awesome things with solar cell parks and battery storage, rendering his pioneering efforts futile. To his credit, he seems fully aware of this.

The whole story thus boils down to a nice, illustrative all-other-things-equal experiment of how off-the-grid self sufficiency stacks up against a renewable energy power grid "done right". The latter winning by a large margin.

That being said, there are plenty of sunny places on Earth where the power grid is dysfunctional, or is hard to access. Those would be more obvious places for DIY solar panels.

My thought is that sometimes you do make big social impact by working for "the man" instead of going it alone.

Cooperative and competitive approaches both have their place, and are both necessary to move us forward. I'd say it's pretty fucking honest to admit one's attempt has failed rather than doubling down - about the best we can hope for.

To me, a lot of "off the grid" attempts look like elective attempts at re-solving issues dealt with by plain rural poverty out of necessity, often overspending on capital goods to do so (eg how much are storage batteries, shipped to Hawaii?). But even so, they are valuable as a different starting culture means different assumptions about what amenities are necessary, and different approaches to solving/suffering problems - eg the expectation that there will be dependable electricity for solid refrigeration, copious light at night, computers, and electronic entertainment - rather than simply shrugging off that the benefits aren't needed.

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