Your secret weapon against summer heat: home solar power + battery
A record-breaking heat dome over the central United States is sending temperatures – and cooling bills! – soaring into triple digit territory. Luckily, there’s a readily available technology that can help keep your home cool without playing that infuriating and unwinnable “keep your thermostat at 79 degrees” game: a home solar and battery system.
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This summer of 2025 is just getting started, but a massive “heat dome” enveloping much of the central and eastern US this week will lead to, “levels of heat and humidity not seen in June in many years,” according to AccuWeather. “There will be little relief at night, with some urban areas failing to fall below 80 for multiple nights in a row, increasing the risk of heat-related ailments such as heat exhaustion or stroke.”
All of that sounds horrible, of course – but if you’ve been looking for an excuse to add a home solar and battery solution to your home, a terrifying heat dome is as good an excuse as any!
If you need more to consider:
- Solar panels can reduce (or eliminate) your energy bills: this one’s obvious, right? If you’re using less grid energy then your bills will go down – and at a time that not much else is!
- Solar panels act as physical shields for your roof: this 2011 study by the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego found that solar panel arrays can reduce roof temperatures by up to 38%, resulting in cooler attics and less heat transfer into your air conditioned living spaces.
- Keeps your home cool when the grid fails: massive heat means massive loads on your local grid, which can mean rolling blackouts or brownouts. If you lose power in your neighborhood, a solar panel array alone won’t keep your lights on because grid-tied solar systems are designed to automatically shut off for safety reasons, preventing electricity from flowing back “up” power lines and endangering utility workers trying to restore power. Home solar not only reduces the load on your grid, but a battery backup will enable you to keep your home and food cooler while services are restored.
- Fight back against climate change by choosing a renewable resource: because the energy you’re using to keep your home cooler is for sure coming from a renewable source when you’ve got solar, it’s a fair bet that it’ll greener than whatever you’re doing now, even at a lower temperature setting.
- The right time is absolutely RIGHT NOW: in the latest Senate version of the GOP’s budget and tax bill, better known as Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the established 30% tax credit for home solar and battery systems is going to be over (bye-bye) 180 days from the time the President signs it (other tax credits for utility-scale solar and wind projects are going to be completely phased out by 2028). That, combined with record low battery prices, mean the timing is tough to beat.
That’s my take, anyway – and as the temperatures keep climbing, it makes sense to make sure your roof is doing more than just impersonating Sheryl Crow all summer.
In a home solar and battery backup system, you’ve got a real, physical, and electrical edge in the fight against this years’ relentless summer heat wave … and, like, not to sound alarmist or anything, but it probably won’t be any cooler next year.
Original content from Electrek.
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After plenty of delays (even as recently as this very morning), the first videos of Tesla’s Robotaxi rides are coming in and the Tesla fans that have been invited as early access users seem to have positive reviews already.
Tesla finally started operating a limited Robotaxi service today in Austin, Texas. The system is geofenced, time-limited, does not operate in inclement weather, and includes a “safety monitor” in the passenger seat and backup teleoperators, but it doesn’t include a driver in the driver’s seat, so it truly is a driverless taxi (well, unless you use Elon Musk’s definition).
The system is currently limited to the South end of Austin, as we can see in this short tour of the Robotaxi app. The Robotaxi app is currently invite-only, with invites sent primarily to about 20 Tesla fans, several of whom we heard make reference to a pre-briefing with Tesla going over the rules of the system. Those fans can bring +1s along for a ride, but only 2 passengers per ride allowed.
To order a Robotaxi, you must download a separate app, other than the normal Tesla app, and install it (through Apple’s TestFlight beta testing protocol). From there, as long as you are in the service area, you’ll have a car sent to you to pick it up. If you pick a destination outside the service area, the app will try to drop you off near the edge of the service area and tell you how much of a walk you’ll have to reach your actual destination.
The area seems to be around 8 miles wide and 4 or so miles tall, so lets say somewhere around 30 square miles. That’s smaller than the area that Waymo covers in Austin, and doesn’t include the main downtown area North of the river, whereas Waymo does cover downtown (here’s the Waymo service area).
Tesla’s director of Autopilot/AI, Ashok Elluswamy, posted a shot of the “war room” where Tesla is monitoring the launch. A screen shows that 112 rides and 499 miles of driving were completed at the time of posting, for an average ride of about 4 miles (which is about as far as you can go in the small service area) – along with a number “35” which is hard to read (if it’s number of cars operating, then that’s much higher than the anticipated 10 cars – one safety monitor was asked how many cars are operating, and declined to answer).
It does seem likely that these stats must include operation before the Robotaxi’s official noon start time, as we think it’s unlikely 112 rides were completed in 15 minutes, when only about 20 people were reportedly invited to the program. So, either there are more cars or invitees than we know about, or employee ridership is included, or the baseline didn’t start at zero, or something of the sort.
The longest video we found is Chuck Cook’s video on his first Robotaxi experience, posted on twitter like most of the others we saw here (wouldn’t it be nice if they used something other than the worst video platform on the internet? oh well…). Cook attained some prominence for having a particularly difficult unprotected turn near his house, which he would routinely test new versions of FSD on and publish his results. His video, so far, seems to be the most complete one of a ride that I’ve seen.
When your car arrives, you’ll see a Tesla Model Y with nobody in the driver seat (but someone in the passenger seat, at least for now) and with pulsing exterior lights to signal that it is your vehicle. Unlike Waymo, Tesla doesn’t have any unique signage outside the vehicle to distinguish one vehicle from another, but given that there are few cars operating at the moment, this shouldn’t be much of an issue (Waymos can light up a sign with different colors and the initials of the person ordering it).
When you get in, you’ll find a lot of settings are carried over from your own Tesla ownership experience, as long as you’ve registered with your Tesla account within the app. Many riders pointed out that the music they were listening to in their cars showed up inside the Robotaxi when they got in. We imagine it might be able to, say, carry over your podcast progress or something of the sort, which would be a neat feature.
The screens inside the vehicle operate in a familiar manner, but the rear screen in the Model Y has some Robotaxi-focused interface differences. For example, there’s a “support” button which you can press to connect with remote help, just like in a Waymo (though the necessity of this with an actual, living person in the passenger seat seems lower). The support button seemed to have inconsistent response times, with some getting an immediate pickup, and some needing to wait for the better part of a minute.
The “safety monitor” in the passenger seat has access to buttons telling the car to pull over or to stop in the lane, but doesn’t have access to actual driver controls like steering wheel or pedals. Riders weren’t able to operate the front screen to see if things like Netflix, etc., are operational while the car is in motion.
The various Tesla fans who posted videos had plenty of experience in FSD-enabled vehicles, and the system seems to have similar capabilities but perhaps be on a different FSD build than public vehicles.
The ride seems smooth, and perhaps smoother than you might have experienced on some FSD builds. I’ve had a Model Y try to launch me off of speed bumps and dips in the road before, but the Robotaxi handled this one well
When dropping him off at Starbucks, Cook’s car encountered a human driver stopped in the middle of the lot, and after some moments of indecision, decided to turn and back into a parking spot in order to let him out of the car. Quite advanced behavior, I would say, and a more confident parking job than I’ve personally encountered in a Waymo.
When getting out of the car, you’re presented with a button to open the trunk if you used it, and instructions on how to open the car’s door. Tesla owners will know that first-time riders often have difficulty finding the button to release the door inside the vehicle (we mentioned this in our very first review of the Model 3), so those instructions are useful.
Finally, at the end, you’ll get a chance to rate your ride, and even leave a “tip”… but not really:
The riders we saw are all Tesla fans and/or investors, which on the one hand makes them less interested in criticizing the company, but on the other hand means they are quite knowledgable about the current capabilities and limitations of Tesla’s systems. The vibe we mostly got was positive, with the word “smooth” being bandied about readily.
The day seems to have been relatively drama-free so far, minus the significant competition over the operating vehicles from every invited user repeatedly ordering taxis all day, and the annoyance from tele-support personnel answering the phone for people who didn’t actually need help, but just saw a button they wanted to push.
Electrek’s Take
Well the day is finally here. After so many pushbacks, there are finally Teslas driving around on public roads with nobody in the driver’s seat.
So far, in the first few hours on a nice Austin day, shuttling a friendly audience around, there have been no problems we’ve seen yet. Some predicted immediate doom and gloom, but given the literal billions of miles that Tesla has under its belt with FSD, I would have been highly surprised to see things immediately go south. The stage was set for Tesla to get its launch, and its launch it got.
Now comes the work of continuing to improve, of opening the system up to a true public, of seeing when these vehicles can actually operate unmonitored, with nobody at all inside the vehicle (or watching from abroad). And of seeing what the incident rate works out to over a sample of more than 499 miles, if Tesla will ever release that data (it says it would “suffer financial harm” if forced to).
Launching in a state like this is one feat, but scaling is another. And then following through on the promise that you’ve been selling $15,000 software with for years – the promise that Tesla owners would have “appreciating assets.” So far, Tesla’s keeping that asset appreciation for itself.
Tesla has long stated that it would be able to scale faster than others, and given the number of cars out there and data that it holds, that may end up being true. But Tesla’s promises on full self driving have been proven wrong many times before, so there’s a lot of “wait and see” left on that front.
As of now, Tesla is still behind Waymo, by several years. But Waymo has also not been scaling particularly quickly, and certainly both are slower than a lot of techno-optimists would have liked. So we’ll have to see which tortoise wins this race – but we welcome Tesla finally stepping up to the start line.
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Environment
Bitcoin briefly sinks below $99,000 as U.S. strikes on Iran trigger crypto market sell-off
Bitcoin fell to its lowest level since May over the weekend, as rising tensions in the Middle East and renewed inflation fears triggered a sharp selloff across digital assets.
Bitcoin dropped below the $99,000 mark on Sunday — its lowest level in more than a month — while ether plunged over 10% at one point, as the digital asset market became the first to price in rising geopolitical risk. Solana, XRP, and dogecoin also posted steep losses, dragging the entire crypto complex sharply lower.
By late Sunday, digital assets had started to recover. Bitcoin was trading just under $101,000, down just 1% over the past 24 hours, while ether has pared some losses, off 2.5% to around $2,200.
The sell-off appears to be a combination of geopolitical shock and macroeconomic concern.
Iran has reportedly threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz — a vital shipping lane that handles about 20% of global oil supply. JPMorgan warns that a full closure could drive oil prices as high as $130 per barrel.
One prominent macro research firm notes that such a spike could send U.S. inflation back toward 5% — a level not seen since March 2023, when the Fed was still actively raising rates.
That outlook has traders reassessing the path of interest rates — and rotating out of speculative assets like crypto.
While bitcoin is often pitched as an inflation hedge, it’s currently behaving more like a high-beta tech stock. According to crypto data provider Kaiko, bitcoin’s correlation with the tech-heavy Nasdaq has climbed sharply in recent weeks, after hitting a multi-month low earlier this year — a period that coincided with surging inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs.
Institutional positioning also appears to have shifted.
More than $1.04 billion flowed into spot bitcoin ETFs from Monday through Wednesday last week, according to data from CoinGlass. But those inflows collapsed heading into the weekend, with zero net movement Thursday and just $6.4 million on Friday — coinciding with President Donald Trump’s early G7 departure and the announcement of a two-week review of U.S. options on Iran.
The technical breakdown added fuel to the selloff.
CoinGlass research shows bitcoin’s drop below $99,000 triggered forced selling across offshore derivatives platforms like Binance and Bybit. At its peak on Sunday, more than $1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated during a 24-hour span — with over 95% coming from long bets, underscoring just how overexposed the market was heading into the weekend.
Environment
Oil prices jump more than 2% after U.S. strikes on Iran raise fears of supply disruption
Oil futures jumped more than 2% at the start of the first trading session since the U.S. launched direct attacks against Iran, casting a shadow over the supply outlook in the embattled oil-rich Middle Eastern region.
U.S. crude oil on Sunday evening rose $1.76, or 2.38%, to $75.60 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent was up $1.80, or 2.34%, to $78.81 per barrel. Brent had jumped 5.7% to crack $81 before easing.
President Donald Trump on Saturday surprised markets with the announcement that Washington had directly entered the Iran-Israel conflict, launching attacks against three Iranian nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
Investors are now looking to see how Iran will respond to the unprecedented U.S. strikes. Iran’s foreign minister said Sunday the Islamic Republic reserves “all options” to defend its sovereignty. The initial rise in oil prices could ease if Iran does not respond, according to S&P Global Platts.
Strait of Hormuz
The worst-case scenario for the oil market would be an attempt by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, according to energy analysts. Some 20 million barrels per day of crude, or 20% of global consumption, flowed through the strait in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Iranian state media reported that Iran’s parliament had backed closing of the strait, citing a senior lawmaker. However, the final decision to close the strait lies with Iran’s national security council, according to the report.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned Iran against attempting to close the strait. It would be “economic suicide” for the Islamic Republic because their exports pass through the waterway, Rubio said.
“We retain options to deal with that,” Rubio told Fox News in an interview Sunday. “It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours. It would be, I think, a massive escalation that would merit a response, not just by us, but from others.”
Iran produced 3.3 million bpd in May, according to OPEC’s monthly oil market report released in June, which cites independent analyst sources. It exported 1.84 million bpd last month, with the vast majority sold to China, according to data from Kpler.
Rubio called on China to use its influence to prevent Tehran from closing the strait. About half of China’s waterborne crude oil imports comes from the Persian Gulf, per Kpler.
“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” Rubio said.
Investors are also watching the odds of a further destabilization of the Iranian regime as a result of U.S.-Israeli hostilities, given the example of the long-spanning impact that the 2011 NATO-led ousting of Muammar Gaddafi had on Libya’s supplies.
Regional tensions
Tensions have likewise ramped up in neighboring Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, where pro-Tehran militias have previously threatened Washington, should it target Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned that “the US bases in the region are not their strength but rather their greatest vulnerability” without specifying particular sites, according to Google-translated comments carried by Iranian news agency Fars.
Fledgling, but revived diplomatic ties between former rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia could meanwhile diffuse the possibility of disruptions in the supply of the world’s largest crude exporter.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is following with deep concern the developments in the Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly the targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States of America,” the Saudi foreign ministry said on Sunday. Riyadh, a close U.S. ally in the Middle East, has limited its involvement in the Iran-Israel offensives.
Back in 2019 — four years before resuming diplomatic relations with Iran — Saudi Arabia’s oil installation facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais sustained damage during attacks that were claimed by the Houthis, but for which Riyadh and the U.S. said Iran bore responsibility. Tehran denied involvement.
At the resumption of Israeli-Iranian fire last week, the International Energy Agency’s chief Fatih Birol said the institution was monitoring the developments and that “markets are well supplied today but we’re ready to act if needed,” with 1.2 billion barrels of emergency stocks on standby.
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