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Building solar on farmland is genuinely psychotic. Why isn't the play to first cover all urban/suburban and let nature regenerate. If you are going to cover som

Building solar on farmland is genuinely psychotic. Why isn't the play to first cover all urban/suburban and let nature regenerate. If you are going to cover something, cover the deserts in Arizona.

0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago
Significantly more challenging to install solar onto already developed land. California is also largely desert itself. Such farming is only possible through unsustainable levels of irrigation.
- burnt-resistor 1y ago
  SoCal (not just SD) really need to get to work on industrial-scale desal, storage, and aqueduct infrastructure to potentially augment ordinarily and sustain the Southwest in times of drought. It's going to happen, they won't be prepared, and it's going to be really, really bad. (This is partially why I moved to around the 100th meridian west.)
- wagwang 1y ago
  California is not a desert, it's semi arid and its not obvious to me that the existing irrigation is unsustainable given that we empty billions of gallons into the bay.
MandieD 1y ago
Oooooh, you're one of today's 10,000, and I get to be the person who tells you about Agrivoltaics - combining farming/ranching and solar panels. You don't completely cover the land in solar panels - you work with the idea that the sun (and resulting shadows from the panels) moves throughout the day, so space them out a bit, and mount them high enough to stay out of the way of the agricultural activity. I first saw this going on in southern Germany. The cattle were all in the shaded areas, eating the grass that was growing better than in neighboring uncovered fields - this year was really dry here until a few weeks ago.
- defrost 1y ago
  To lift that up from anecdata and to provide a link for the GP that you might enjoy: Solar farm trial shows improved fleece on merino sheep grazed under panels (2022) https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-05-30/solar-farm-grazing-sheep-agriculture-renewable-energy-review/101097364 https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-05-30/solar-farm-graz... Confirmed multiple times since in several parts of rural Australia.
  - MandieD 1y ago
    How did you know that I'm a spinner?! This is definitely something I enjoyed.

Building solar on farmland is genuinely psychotic. Why isn't the play to first cover all urban/suburban and let nature regenerate. If you are going to cover something, cover the deserts in Arizona.

0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago

Significantly more challenging to install solar onto already developed land. California is also largely desert itself. Such farming is only possible through unsustainable levels of irrigation.

burnt-resistor 1y ago
SoCal (not just SD) really need to get to work on industrial-scale desal, storage, and aqueduct infrastructure to potentially augment ordinarily and sustain the Southwest in times of drought. It's going to happen, they won't be prepared, and it's going to be really, really bad. (This is partially why I moved to around the 100th meridian west.)
wagwang 1y ago
California is not a desert, it's semi arid and its not obvious to me that the existing irrigation is unsustainable given that we empty billions of gallons into the bay.

MandieD 1y ago

Oooooh, you're one of today's 10,000, and I get to be the person who tells you about Agrivoltaics - combining farming/ranching and solar panels. You don't completely cover the land in solar panels - you work with the idea that the sun (and resulting shadows from the panels) moves throughout the day, so space them out a bit, and mount them high enough to stay out of the way of the agricultural activity. I first saw this going on in southern Germany. The cattle were all in the shaded areas, eating the grass that was growing better than in neighboring uncovered fields - this year was really dry here until a few weeks ago.

defrost 1y ago
To lift that up from anecdata and to provide a link for the GP that you might enjoy: Solar farm trial shows improved fleece on merino sheep grazed under panels (2022) https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-05-30/solar-farm-grazing-sheep-agriculture-renewable-energy-review/101097364 https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-05-30/solar-farm-graz... Confirmed multiple times since in several parts of rural Australia.
- MandieD 1y ago
  How did you know that I'm a spinner?! This is definitely something I enjoyed.