Rather like the car, think of panels as buying 20+ years of electricity upfront rather than being exposed to market rates. You can buy a car upfront, on credit, lease it, or rent it; in all of those the longer you commit the cheaper it is.

Not for everyone, but definitely for homeowners with suitable roofs and local utilities.

https://electrek.co/2026/01/06/catl-ev-batteries-significant...

> For example, CATL is one of four LFP battery suppliers at the Zhangbei National Wind-Solar-Storage Demonstration Project in China. CATL’s batteries are the only ones that have never been replaced, retaining over 90% of residual capacity after 14 years.

Batteries are not only not worthless after almost 15 years in service, they still have sufficient capacity to continue to operate. If you need that capacity back lost to degradation, add a battery ~15 years from now, they will only continue to get cheaper.

Is an ETF simple?

I get your point that in modern society, you can invest in an ETF in a few clicks, but in a way, owning your own infrastructure is simpler. Transform the sun into energy reserves with parts you can buy, understand, and install yourself from wholesalers.

A power company is opaque, carries overhead, and requires complexity to serve at an institutional level. ETFs have a similar complexity/abstraction to their customers.

I'm with you. I have no interest in owning, running, and maintaining my own personal electrical utility.

I'm happy to pay monthly to let my electrical provider handle all that, and I'll invest my money in something with a better return.

> Large solar farms and neighbourhood batteries operate at a much higher efficiency than domestic installations.

Maybe, but that power is typically generated far from where it's consumed and so you have significant transmission losses.

battery life span is defined as when the reach 80% of their original capacity. it's possible that the decline will accelerate after that point but they aren't suddenly useless