4 ms·
I agree 100% that corn is a very inefficient fuel source, but > If this land were repurposed with solar power, it could provide around three and a half times t
by BurnGpuBurn 3y ago
I agree 100% that corn is a very inefficient fuel source, but
> If this land were repurposed with solar power, it could provide around three and a half times the electricity needs of the United States
Isn't really accurate. It could never provide that, simply because solar is too intermittent. With (theoretically huuuuuge batteries) it could perhaps, but those don't exist. So it couldn't.
- toomuchtodo 3y agohttps://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/Tesla-Master-Plan-Part-3.pdf https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/Tesla-Master-Plan-Part-3.pdf (page 30) The batteries exist of course. Tesla ships 40GWh a year of them, and they are scaling up the next Megapack manufacturing facility in China. https://www.tesla.com/megafactory https://www.tesla.com/megafactory
- GaggiX 3y agoTo be honest while 40GWh a year is a huge quantity of batteries it's not nearly enough for a country that consume 11TWh a day, maybe in a century (and ignoring battery degradation). US needs at least a magnitude more to reach the objective in a few decades.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoAbsolutey. Stayed tuned. Flywheels still coming up to speed. Just a short bit ago we were building 0 batteries for utility storage every year.
- ben_w 3y agoArguing that we can't solve problem X by growing tech Y, because that would require support from tech Z which would also need to grow, seems like putting the conclusion first and trying to find arguments to fit. So people get rich making battery factories. So what?