| ▲ | dimitrios1 2 hours ago | ||||||||||||||||
I am against it for one reason only, but it's very solvable, IMO, and it's the amount of space they take up. I live next to 200+ acres of solar farms. A part of me cries a little when I see so much beautiful land and trees cut down and these lifeless panels taking up so much space. We have so many buildings, and structures already (think parking decks, tops of apartments, homes, offices, even parking lots) that we could put these, but instead we cut down acres of trees or use up perfectly usable farmland. | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | beambot an hour ago | parent | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
You need to read about agrivoltaics. This is being used to huge effect elsewhere in the world to improve farming & soil. Here's an example from China: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03014... | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | bryanlarsen 43 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
The standard alternative to a solar farm is a monoculture corn farm producing ethanol. That monoculture corn farm regularly gets sprayed, plowed and harvested, each time decimating its animal population. Your solar farm is probably filled with a diverse selection of grass and weeds, supporting a far higher animal population than that corn farm. | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | mjamesaustin 20 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
Technology Connections did the math on this and found that if you ONLY replaced fields used for ethanol production with solar panels, the amount of space would be enough solar panels to power the entire power grid in the US. | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | rcxdude an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
I cry more when I think about the amount of farmland being used for bioethanol, something which is barely energy positive. If the US would switch the subsidies and regulations propping that up to propping up solar, it would easily free up a huge amount of land. | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | 8note 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
on that easy fix - the land under solar panels can still be used for farming or ranching | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | tootie 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | ||||||||||||||||
Sure but compare that to the amount of land used for oil and gas extraction. The difference is that mines and drills can only go where there's stuff to extract and solar panels can go anywhere. Including near residential areas. That's also due to the fact that they are so environmentally neutral. | |||||||||||||||||
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