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Comment by aswegs8 | Hacker News Reader

Am I dumb or does that sentence "Analysis finds anytime electricity from solar available as battery costs plummet" make no sense grammatically?

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The actual headline is:

Analysis finds "anytime electricity" from solar available as battery costs plummet.

Those missing quotes go a long way to making the headline make sense.

Its still really confusing. A better title would be "When solar power from batteries are available, costs plummet"

Or since power has no provenience, "When batteries are available, electricity prices fall"

This doesn’t really capture their meaning though. They are describing a change in how the solar generated electricity can be treated due to the changing battery prices.

Arguably your edit is more factual. But part of the job of the title in an editorial like this is to tell you what their perspective is.

I assume the intended meaning is “reduced battery costs make around-the-clock solar-generated electricity possible”. I don't think it's possible to predict how technical changes in electricity production and storage impact prices.

"Falling battery costs make electricity from solar viable day and night"

I think they meant "viable" instead of "available"

Just read the subhead. It explains everything.

Ember’s report outlines how falling battery capital expenditures and improved performance metrics have lowered the levelized cost of storage, making dispatchable solar a competitive, anytime electricity option globally.

I.e. making it a viable option.

Well they are two different words with two different meanings. Both are true in this case. “Available” in the sense “obtainable,” “ready for use,” “suitable for a purpose” or perhaps “available to investors”

Baseload, ideally.

If they were going for maximum confusion, why not write, “Solar battery costs plummet analysis findings back anytime electricity availability”?

Subject (((((Solar battery) costs) plummet) analysis) findings)

Verb [back]

Object (anytime (electricity availability))

Garden path sentence structure trap creation relies on initial word parse error encouragement. Brain pattern recognition system default subject-verb-object order preference exploitation causes early stop interpretation failure.

Solar battery costs plummet phrase acting as complex noun modifier group creates false sentence finish illusion. Real subject findings arrival delay forces mental backtrack restart necessity.

Noun adjunct modifier stack length excess impacts processing speed negatively. Back word function switch from direction noun to support verb finalizes reader confusion state.

We write to be understood. Short sentences and simple words make the truth easy to see.

Brilliant <ttul>! I would have needed help from Claude to tangle it up so well and on topic. But that last lucid sentence is rubbish.

Came in the comment section looking to see if it was just me. Had to read it 4 times

The source report

“How cheap is battery storage?“ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/how-cheap-is-batter...

In short: Cheaper batteries plus already cheap solar means that solar is now a cheap source of “anytime electricity”.

Falling battery prices make storing solar electricity for later use economically viable. This means we can use electricity from solar anytime around the clock. Even accounting for the cost of batteries, it's still competitive with other sources of electricity.

To me the context string is just a bit...lumpy or something, I don't think it's directly about the grammar. I would have written something more like: a battery costs plummet, analasis finds "anytime electricity" is now available from solar.

I think “anytime electricity” is a noun phrase, and the rest is just the usual headline shortening. So something like this:

(Analysis finds ((anytime electricity) from solar) available) (as (battery costs) plummet)

In the unsuccessful parse, “anytime“ introduces a relative clause.

(Analysis finds [that] (anytime ((electricity from solar) [is] available))) ???

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