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.

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.

But maybe the unstated rules of his game mean that's not an option.