The same land can produce for 25 years with zero labor and OpEx. The best passive investment ever. Plants capture solar energy at 6% efficiency but required a LOT of OpEx, solar panels capture it far more efficiently (15 - 20%) with zero OpEx.
toomuchtodo•16m ago
Culture takes time to change. Farmers and their communities have their identity bound to agriculture vs solar production, regardless of the math. In this case, we’re lucky the decision is forced by water shortages that are predicted to make it more economically optimal to lock in long term utility scale solar PV land leases than continue to farm the land. Progress comes eventually (there are more farmers over 75 than under 35 in the US, per the USDA).
Lots of other land in the US this will apply to in our lifetimes.
(if you replaced all of the farmland/ag land, the size of the state of Oregon, harvested for ethanol with solar, you would have more electrical generation than all current US electrical generation combined as of this comment)
thelastgallon•31m ago
toomuchtodo•16m ago
Lots of other land in the US this will apply to in our lifetimes.
https://www.newsweek.com/the-largest-us-groundwater-supply-i...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155074242...
https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/t...
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/solar/where-solar-is-fou...
(if you replaced all of the farmland/ag land, the size of the state of Oregon, harvested for ethanol with solar, you would have more electrical generation than all current US electrical generation combined as of this comment)