4 ms·
Solar seems... interesting, at least, as a way to move sunlight from places where agriculture is nonviable for other reasons to places where it is viable, or to
by andrewflnr 4y ago
Solar seems... interesting, at least, as a way to move sunlight from places where agriculture is nonviable for other reasons to places where it is viable, or to where it's cheaper. I guess you could even surround a relatively small "vertical farm" in an inhospitable environment, e.g. currently useless arid land in the US midwest, with a crap ton of solar panels to make that small volume more hospitable, including lighting, air conditioning, etc. Granted, it still doesn't make a ton of sense for a farming company to invest in it directly, you'd want to hire it out.
- goda90 4y ago> currently useless arid land in the US midwest The US midwest is far from arid(except maybe the Dakotas). This is probably a confusion about what "midwest" means, since it is kind of a confusing term when you think about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States The real issue is the cold winters cutting into agriculture time, which is why there's a lot of grains and animal agriculture. Solar-pasture combos could power greenhouses that keep running through winter, but there's so much space that there's not much need for it to be vertical.
- andrewflnr 4y agoFair, I guess I was just thinking "West".