We have so much excess land with no real use for it that our government actually pays farmers to grow corn on it to burn in cars.

Availability of land for solar production isn't remotely a real problem in the near term.

This is really underselling it tbh. Any land that's growing corn in a developed country is likely top 1% of land on earth. Half of the earth is desert and tundra. Which is still incredibly easier to work with than space because you can ship there with a pickup very cheaply. Maybe when nevada and central australia are wall-to-wall solar panels we can check back on space.

The Technology Connections Youtube channel recently did a great video arguing pretty convincingly that the land used to grow corn for cars would be vastly more efficiently used from an energy perspective if we covered it with solar panels.

This.

I feel like everyone just lost their mind.