If I understand many of my colleagues gripes about their days in graduate school, the PI basically told them to make it work, so they did. Either by manipulating procedures, using the one study out of 5 that worked, or by photoshopping images. I’d say manipulation is absolutely rampant in his lab, this is just one way they were doing it and they got caught.
No, 4kwh is about the daily amount of sun hitting 1 square meter. Solar panels can capture about 20% of that