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by AndrewDavis 50 days ago
I really liked the land usage discussion. That (for the US) if you took the land currently being used to grow crops for ethanol based motor fuels. Turned them into solar farms you'd cover 80% of current grid demand.

I was already pro renewables for a myriad of reasons. But that put the scale into a much better perspective.

2 comments

That's incorrect per the video. It wouldn't cover 80% of the current US grid it would cover 80% more! It would be 180% of total US grid usage.

Timestamp of where he says that: https://youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM?t=2198

or we could build like 200 more fission plants and rewild all that ethanol land. not really a compelling point in favor of solar land use this factoid...
That, however, would be vastly more expensive. Maybe worth it from an overall ecological PoV, but I doubt power companies have an appetite for the CAPEX involved.