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How much money does a golf course bring in yearly? How onerous are the regulations? How much money would a solar farm bring in yearly? How onerous would the re

How much money does a golf course bring in yearly? How onerous are the regulations? How much money would a solar farm bring in yearly? How onerous would the regulations be?

ytpete 9mo ago
Also what is the capitol cost to stand up a golf course vs. a solar farm of equal size? I would imagine solar requires locking up a much larger investment.
- pfdietz 9mo ago
  For PV, land will be a very small fraction of that capex.
  - hedora 9mo ago
    Yeah; golf course land tends to be in places with high property values. If we normalize by $ instead of by acre, the hypothetical golf course conversion would produce >> 10% of land requirements.
pfdietz 9mo ago
Let's compare to agriculture. An acre used to make hay might bring in $500/year. An acre used for PV might bring in $25,000/year. If PV uses too much land, do we want to talk about what agriculture is doing?
- rdtsc 9mo ago
  > If PV uses too much land, do we want to talk about what agriculture is doing? If we’ve worried about land why not go for nuclear? Just plant nuclear reactor seeds add fertilizer and power plants spring up in a few months. See it doesn’t quite work that way. It brushes away too many variables.
  - hedora 9mo ago
    It's probably easier to build a solar farm than prepare new land for hay production at this point. Have you noticed the price of beef going up? It's because we're losing arable land to climate change. It takes a large number of high quality acres to raise a cow on grass. That's been getting less and less feasible over time between extreme weather and erosion, so the cows get hay instead. Hay production in places like Texas is disrupted by drought every few years, which means that ranchers have to sell their cattle at a loss or let the cows starve in the fields (assuming they don't die of heat stroke - the cows and the farmers). After a few bad cycles like that, the ranchers start selling off land, so there aren't enough cows even in good years. Presumably this is bad for hay farmers, since demand attenuates down to what it would be in a drought year. That brings us to 2026. It's pretty clear what's coming next.
- JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
  I’ve looked into buying grassland. It’s in in the middle of nowhere. $25k/year is before maintenance and grid hook-up costs, both of which will be substantial in the middle of nowhere.

How much money does a golf course bring in yearly? How onerous are the regulations? How much money would a solar farm bring in yearly? How onerous would the regulations be?

ytpete 9mo ago

Also what is the capitol cost to stand up a golf course vs. a solar farm of equal size? I would imagine solar requires locking up a much larger investment.

pfdietz 9mo ago
For PV, land will be a very small fraction of that capex.
- hedora 9mo ago
  Yeah; golf course land tends to be in places with high property values. If we normalize by $ instead of by acre, the hypothetical golf course conversion would produce >> 10% of land requirements.

pfdietz 9mo ago

Let's compare to agriculture. An acre used to make hay might bring in $500/year. An acre used for PV might bring in $25,000/year. If PV uses too much land, do we want to talk about what agriculture is doing?

rdtsc 9mo ago
> If PV uses too much land, do we want to talk about what agriculture is doing? If we’ve worried about land why not go for nuclear? Just plant nuclear reactor seeds add fertilizer and power plants spring up in a few months. See it doesn’t quite work that way. It brushes away too many variables.
- hedora 9mo ago
  It's probably easier to build a solar farm than prepare new land for hay production at this point. Have you noticed the price of beef going up? It's because we're losing arable land to climate change. It takes a large number of high quality acres to raise a cow on grass. That's been getting less and less feasible over time between extreme weather and erosion, so the cows get hay instead. Hay production in places like Texas is disrupted by drought every few years, which means that ranchers have to sell their cattle at a loss or let the cows starve in the fields (assuming they don't die of heat stroke - the cows and the farmers). After a few bad cycles like that, the ranchers start selling off land, so there aren't enough cows even in good years. Presumably this is bad for hay farmers, since demand attenuates down to what it would be in a drought year. That brings us to 2026. It's pretty clear what's coming next.
JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
I’ve looked into buying grassland. It’s in in the middle of nowhere. $25k/year is before maintenance and grid hook-up costs, both of which will be substantial in the middle of nowhere.