At first, I thought maybe it used heat to drive a refrigeration cycle (like the gas-powered refrigerators), but it's got a solar-powered compressor that freezes ice packs in the walls combined with some hefty insulation. Still cool, but yeah, also uses electricity.
This kind of consumerist green-tech is not solarpunk. Solarpunk is about imagining a postcapitalist future, when human needs are met not just within ecological constraints, but as part of a healthy ecosystem, and technology exists to aid us in doing that. It's about envisioning a radically changed world. Tools like these are the exact opposite end of green-tech: They're specifically designed to fit neatly into our life as it exists today. The ad copy is super clear about that. The promotional materials even have an SUV.
To be clear, I'm not taking a stance on whether they're bad or good, but I am saying that they're not solarpunk.
I think the idea of battery storage is solar punk in and of itself, just because it's had some nice branding doesn't take away from the fact that in a post capitalist future, everyone would have a battery attached to their house.
Just because a postcapitalist world should have a battery for every house does not make batteries in and of themselves solarpunk. The story surrounding the battery, in this case, the branding, is actually precisely what matters, because solarpunk is explicitly about speculative futures. It's a genre of science fiction that creates an optimistic and green aesthetic to aid in imagining a postcapitalist world. Posting a link to a currently existing consumer grade technology with consumerist branding is, by definition, not solarpunk.
"A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam." You're posting the automobile. Science fiction is about the social context of the technology as much if not more than about the technology itself.
Again, I'm not saying that personal batteries are bad, or have no part in a postcapitalist future.
"Technology for a solar punk future". By your own admission, you're not disputing that batteries have a place in a solar punk future, so no harm, no foul. If you're interested in a conversation about the pros and cons of exploiting capitalism to get to that future, that's a different conversation for a different post completely.
This was reported as advertisement and the only reason I didn't remove it was because you seem to have posted it genuinely as an interesting innovation to share here.
Anyway, I guess even though the entire branding and story around this "almost an advertisement" is indeed not very "solarpunk", its still better than a Tesla powerwall and you need to start somewhere if you want to become less dependent on fossile fuels.
😂 people are so weird. Do they think I work for Anker or that I'm involved with the blog? I have a Miniflux installation set up, I'm subscribed to a few news sources, this blog being one. I genuinely believe that in order for us to manifest a better tomorrow, we need to invest in infrastructure that allows us to destroy the status quo. If ground source heat pumps, solar panels, wind turbines and batteries become commonplace in our neighborhoods, we'll start moving towards energy independence. It's only when we don't rely on fossil fuels that we will begin to invest in even cleaner and sustainable technologies.
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