China (and a smaller part, India) is cause of that huge amount of not only existing, but new coal plants. [image: fbba6e79-8b0b-4666-98f4-09fd6aeff9db.png] source (note: from 2024 data so that "under construction" is now operational in 2025) China is frequently citied for all its new green energy project (for which it deserves credit), but realistically China is just in need of electricity in whatever form it can get it.

Sadly even with the fall of cell prices and panels, the overall installations will likely still be much more expensive. For solar, panel prices are actually a much smaller part of the overall cost of having an array installed. The other parts are the labor to install along with the design and permitting work. Labor costs continue to rise as well as inflation making the costs of both product and labor incrementally more expensive. For heat pumps there's also a double whammy of a new replacement refridgerant over the R-410a. This means buying a new unit that all the old R-410a will be difficult as the EPA rules say that complete systems can no longer be manufatured as of Jan 1 2026. Environmentally its a good move, but the cost of the new systems will be higher than the older ones. I, personally, was able to take advantage of both the solar tax credit as well as the heat pump credit. This allowed us permanently shut off the natural gas at our house significantly lowering our household carbon impact. I wish more Americans could do the same, but the US government has stopped these credits.

I was shopping for batteries when installing solar a couple years ago. Essentially my choices were Powerwall 2 or Enphase. I specifically did not want NMC/NCA batteries nor did I want a Musk product. The Enphase batteries were more money for less capacity. I bought the Enphase batteries, and I'm happier for it. The whole Enphase solar system has been bulletproof and I'm very happy with it.