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by eastof 669 days ago
The reason it's a bigger issue for solar is that you don't get to choose where the best place to put it is, and it might be really inconvenient. Coal plant you can intentionally put it outside the city, but not too far and where a flat road can connect them. Solar is usually best placed in a desert, and usually people don't live anywhere near deserts, and usually they're separated from where people live by mountain ranges (i.e. the Mojave to LA).
2 comments

That same Mojave desert has the Hoover Dam— it supplies 15% of its power to LA. (Of 58% sent to California)

That was a problem solved 91 years ago— in 1933.

A desert isn't that much of an advantage. If you see a major focus on deserts, it's because transmission lines aren't all that expensive.