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Apples and oranges. Ethanol is for portable refillable energy. Like comparing a battery to a generator. Entirely different purposes. But I get it; we did it fo
by JoeAltmaier 2y ago
Apples and oranges. Ethanol is for portable refillable energy. Like comparing a battery to a generator. Entirely different purposes.
But I get it; we did it for ethanol (valuable as a mobile fuel) because it was commensurate with gasoline, not because it rivaled the electric grid.
Using expensive land to make solar electricity may not rival other forms of electric generation, which is the real measure of solar's viability. Grid energy is cheaper, and needs to be generated by cheaper means.
So again, not all land is suitable for solar generation, not so it would pay.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoAg land is not expensive, and will likely be cheaper as more farms go under. Average farmer is ~60 years old. If the land was expensive, the economics wouldn’t work for solar, but they do. http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-detail?chartId=58268 http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-de... https://www.terrainag.com/insights/examining-the-economic-crisis-in-farm-country/ https://www.terrainag.com/insights/examining-the-economic-cr...
- JoeAltmaier 2y agoLand I just sold went for $12,000 per acre. Where are you buying land?
- toomuchtodo 2y agoThis is well within the bounds of affordability for a utility scale solar install, which is usually a 25 year lease of the land at ~$1000/acre/year. I’m unsure why you believe this is expensive for solar. At $12k/acre, I’ll take as much as I can get (assuming proximity to distribution or transmission lines, or commercially reasonable costs to extend that infra).