3 ms·

Solar farms on farmland? That won't scale to the energy needs of 8bn+ people if we still want to keep feeding them. Especially a non-vegetarian diet.

KyleBerezin 3y ago
I'm just saying the money doesn't back the idea yet. I'm not anti-fusion.
bmicraft 3y ago
No, solar farms in the desert with a HVDC lines obviously.
- angiosperm 3y ago
  The desert is the worst place to put a solar farm. Hot, dusty, far away.
pfdietz 3y ago
Where did he say on farmland?
- fizigura 3y ago
  Well, most land is either farmland, forest or desert. Forest is out of the question for any solar installations unless you want to cut down the trees. Desert is not easily accessible for most parts of the world and provides terrible conditions for solar cells that have sharply declining efficiency with heat and don't like dust. Leaves farmland, if you want to do this kind of thing at any sort of required scale. (Sure you can put solar cells on barn roofs, but the premise was scale magnitudes beyond that.)
angiosperm 3y ago
Hint: solar on farmland does not interfere with use as farmland. Look up agrivoltaics. Solar on pasture is even easier, and protects livestock from weather extremes.
- fizigura 3y ago
  Farmland is literally converting solar energy into sugars. It's natures solar plants. Sure, you can get a bit of shade for your cattle. But the hundreds of millions of acres used for crops are directly competing for sunlight with your solar cells.
  - angiosperm 3y ago
    You imagine that is so, but the science says otherwise. In fact, most plants can only use sunlight for a few hours a day, and must then endure the heat for the rest of the day. A few crops -- wheat, corn -- offer slightly reduced yields when shaded, but many others -- particularly peppers -- yield better with partial shade. Even where yield is reduced, the extra year-round revenue and radically reduced water loss may even the score.

KyleBerezin 3y ago

I'm just saying the money doesn't back the idea yet. I'm not anti-fusion.

bmicraft 3y ago

No, solar farms in the desert with a HVDC lines obviously.

angiosperm 3y ago
The desert is the worst place to put a solar farm. Hot, dusty, far away.

pfdietz 3y ago

Where did he say on farmland?

fizigura 3y ago
Well, most land is either farmland, forest or desert. Forest is out of the question for any solar installations unless you want to cut down the trees. Desert is not easily accessible for most parts of the world and provides terrible conditions for solar cells that have sharply declining efficiency with heat and don't like dust. Leaves farmland, if you want to do this kind of thing at any sort of required scale. (Sure you can put solar cells on barn roofs, but the premise was scale magnitudes beyond that.)

angiosperm 3y ago

Hint: solar on farmland does not interfere with use as farmland. Look up agrivoltaics. Solar on pasture is even easier, and protects livestock from weather extremes.

fizigura 3y ago
Farmland is literally converting solar energy into sugars. It's natures solar plants. Sure, you can get a bit of shade for your cattle. But the hundreds of millions of acres used for crops are directly competing for sunlight with your solar cells.
- angiosperm 3y ago
  You imagine that is so, but the science says otherwise. In fact, most plants can only use sunlight for a few hours a day, and must then endure the heat for the rest of the day. A few crops -- wheat, corn -- offer slightly reduced yields when shaded, but many others -- particularly peppers -- yield better with partial shade. Even where yield is reduced, the extra year-round revenue and radically reduced water loss may even the score.