I got to thinking today about Paradise, CA after the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) pleaded guilty to the fires that took 84 lives back in 2018. It just so occurred to me that now - with many of the properties being cleared for resale - per parcel rates are $10K-20K in certain subdivisions of the town.

Considering that one could purchase literally an entire subdivision for less than $100,000 (easily done as a 30yr fixed mortgage for less than $300 per month), what's to stop someone from, say... doing just that, putting a solar farm up and kicking PG&E out of the town forever?

If anyone has some thoughts they'd like to share, I'm all ears. Right now I am debating the pros and cons of kickstarting this in 2021.

Wanted to update this thread with some other ideas I was brainstorming today. So, I was talking it over with a few people, and their concerns were the regulatory frameworks put on by the municipal government of that area (because of course, this is a litigation happy country). So, I am starting to wonder if there are ways to balance generating power without getting too into the legal side of things, and that's when my one of my mother's ideas actually struck me:

Tiny Homes.

If you're unfamiliar, these are basically pre-fab units that are about the size of what a studio apartment would be, but they are completely stand alone. As such, they are cheaper to heat and cool and otherwise maintain. So, my idea has kind of morphed a little.

What if you were to buy half a dozen lots, and instead of building six houses, why not put in 12-18 Tiny Homes on the same standalone solar-power grid, start a community garden and turn it into a commune for students? The thing about Paradise is it is 20 minutes from both Butte College and CSU Chico. For students not able to live in the dorms, that would be a good bet - and then they could stay during the summer as well.

I wanna get some more discussion on this because it could really be something if I can put a proposal together.