I'm confused as to whether the author wants to cut carbon, use low-tech equipment, save energy, promote self-sufficiency or some other goal. He seems to switch randomly between them at will throughout the article to disparage the alternative to whatever he is writing about.<p>For example, installing your own balcony PV system is obviously not ideal from an efficiency point of view. A well run shared grid or microgrid is always going to beat it.<p>But maybe the unstated rules of his game mean that's not an option.