Energy sounds complicated. It really isn't.
Here's how it all works — and what you can do about it.
GridBasics is the friendly starting point for understanding how power gets made, moved, and used. No jargon, no agenda — every number is sourced, every trade-off is spelled out. Then we hand you simple tools to go from "someone should figure this out" to "here's exactly what I'm doing this weekend."
Section 25D — the 30% residential solar tax credit — expired Dec 31, 2025. Buying cash or loan in 2026 gets zero federal credit. Third-party-owned systems (lease/PPA) still qualify through 2027. State incentives still live.
Find Your State's IncentivesFrom a photon on silicon to your coffee machine — in nine steps.
Click any stage. Every technology we cover lives somewhere on this chain.
Generation, conversion, storage, distribution, consumption. Five stages. Every home, every city, every grid operates inside this loop. Tap in and explore the full map — each node opens to the technologies that make it work.
The 50-state scorecard. No commentary. Just data.
Composite scores across renewable share, solar + wind per capita, net-metering policy, permitting difficulty, EV adoption, grid carbon, and more. Each state opens to a full profile with sources and trend lines.
How it actually works.
What's legitimately wrong with it. Why the winner keeps winning.
Solar Photovoltaic
Silicon. Sunlight. Current.
Panels convert photons directly into electrons through the photovoltaic effect — no turbines, no moving parts, just silicon and sunlight.
Wind (Onshore)
Lift. Rotation. Current.
Airfoil-shaped blades generate lift, spinning a rotor connected — directly or through a gearbox — to a generator.
Lithium-Ion (LFP)
Chemistry as a battery.
Lithium ions shuttle between an iron-phosphate cathode and a graphite anode — the chemical dance that stores grid-scale energy.
What you've heard. What the data says.
"EVs are worse for the environment because of battery mining."
An EV on the average US grid beats a gas car within two to three years of driving — and the gap widens as the grid gets cleaner every year.
"Solar panels don't work in cloudy or cold states."
Germany runs a top-tier solar grid at the latitude of Calgary. Cold helps panels. Clouds reduce output — they do not stop it.
"Wind turbines kill tons of birds."
Turbines kill birds. So do windows, cats, and climate change — at much higher rates. Modern siting has made it a solvable, not a deal-breaking, problem.
"We can't run a grid on 100% renewables."
Multiple countries and regions already run on renewables at or near 100%. The question is speed and cost of the full transition, not feasibility.
The average US household spent $12,400 on electricity the last five years. A median rooftop would have saved $7,800.
Our "Cost of Resistance" calculator shows, state by state, what residents have already paid vs. the counterfactual where renewables were deployed faster.