Meanwhile here in Australia, subsidised Solar, battery, Heat pump water heaters and AC units.
But don't worry, the gas loby is trying to get in on the action and return
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2026
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
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- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
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founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
- shut off cameras
- redirect panels to infrastructure
- ???
- profit
Someone do the math for me pls
- Typical flock panel ~50W
- Typical flock battery ~ 150Wh
- Rough number of flock cameras: 120,000
- Assuming each panel is producing power constantly:
- 120,000 * 50 = 6MW of power, or ~ 3000 homes.
- At 20% efficiency (e.g. cloudy days), that's ~ 400 homes during day time
- The 18 MW battery capacity could potentially make that a 24 hour period
And the rest of the math:
The US currently is installing around 7GW of solar power. Per quarter.
7,000MW. Over 1,000x the entire output of all Flock camera solar panels, being added to the US every 3 months.
The government and a myriad of other entities are currently rolling out green infrastructure 4,000x as fast as flock.
Always admire that one spark of light in the endless void.
The lack of understanding in this post astounding.
solar panels have been used on communication infrastructure since 1960. for example telegraph wires and their respective later versions (copper cable, fiber optics cable, etc) because these cables often run through the middle of nowhere and need a small amount of continuous power to operate. so solar + batteries is the least-maintenace, highest-availability, cheapest option. nobody wants to travel 1000km into the woods to replenish a diesel generator.
--> electronics have been using solar panels since forever. this is nothing new.
Brothers and sisters, there's free solar panels and batteries with every flock camera!
uhh i think these solar panels will be pretty distinct so they're basically a way to give the police a clear proof that you did it.
Looks like they are 45watt panels. Pull the out of the frame and put them in your own setup and they will look like any other. There is enough variety in panels that nobody can make a guess from looking at them. Especially without being invasive enough to need a warrant.
What do you mean? I bought these off my junk guy. And fuck no I ain't telling you Fernando's details, not even his real name, he gets me cheap electronics
I mean, possession is 9/10 of the law. Possessing stolen goods is a crime, whether you stole them or not.
What stolen goods? Fernando deals in legit junk
I can personally vouch for Fernando, he's good
a vouching for from some kind of guy is as good as a vouching for from i don't know, the president of the galaxy or something
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Infrastructure?
It’s a self contained unit, the battery is in the unit, not elsewhere, and it actually saves tearing up roads to run power to these units.
Legit it's sinking a single pole into the ground that only needs line of sight to the thing it's keeping an eye on. Total maybe 3sqft of space taken up.
It's the cheapest option that has the most freedom of placement.
As opposed to solar farms which require vast plots of land, power substations to make the power usable by the grid, and a lot more upkeep.
Gee, I WONDER why so many of them have gone up instead of solar farms...
Fuck flock and the government but this was a dumb attempt at a gotcha that just doesn't make sense if you think about if for more than 5 seconds.
Also, solar farms ARE going up.
There’s about 1,000x as much solar capacity going up every quarter in the US as there is total solar capacity on all flock cameras combined.
Conversely though, there is ways to use the same tech to provide cheaper infrastructure as well though.
My city they use them to provide lighted crosswalks, and as well as flashing stops signs where they are less noticeable. So to have Flock and NOT those, there’s some axes to grind.
Makes you wonder how much could we alleviate strain on the grid by upgrading existing things like this that can be self contained.
Exactly, if the climate is friendly to it, there could be a lot more energy independent infrastructure besides stop signs, crosswalks, and mass surveillance and control mechanisms.
I’m a little on the fence, I live where it’s cold and the batteries are a common fail point, plus long nights need larger batteries and more panels to charge them too. So depending on how important it is, it should probably be hooked up to the grid as well. A little redundancy, but a properly integrated system could provide to the grid when there’s extra (long summer days and short nights) and take when it’s needed (long winter nights.)
i wouldnt be surprised if flock is being partially subsidized by the govt. who else has the most gain, leo, politicians, palantir.
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(9 replies)
If we just redirected all the solar energy from the flock cameras back into the grid we could power the average American home for 2 whole milliseconds!
Think of the savings!
Flock has installed about 100k units with 45w of solar capacity, for about 5MW of capacity.
The US is installing about 7GW of new solar quarterly.
It's not just the solar panels. It's the cost of the cameras and the subscription. It's just beginning as well... these cameras are barely even there at this point... give it time.
Cool, but not the argument presented.
Rolling out a large amount of any type of infrastructure is similar when it comes to just dollars. Governments around the country can roll out hundreds of billions of dollars in flock camera equipment...all of the sudden? Why haven't they rolled out solar generation before this using that found money...billions.
Okay but... Municipalities dont pay for capex beyond the install. Install costs are under 3k each, so less than $300M total?
Vs solar at around $70B per year.
Even if they were footing the bill, do you really think these cameras cost $2M each?
Yearly subscription service is where flock makes their money. And cities are just scratching the surface on what they will be spending on flock.
Seriously, the kind of “gotcha” statement that OP is going for is really harmful to the movement because it’s so out of touch and incorrect.
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