Choice: food or solar fields

[HawkinsHollow]

Care to elaborate? What technology would you like to un-invent if you could? Indoor plumbing? Electricity? Modern sanitation? The wheel?

Not sure I mentioned un-inventing anything. I am just making a statement. But if I could remove one thing, Tik Tok.

 

[fishdrivel]

Taking the water from farmers started along time ago, when they sent it to LA.

Yes, they started sending the water to LA
They have gone a lot further than that now.
Almost no water going to south California Valley Farms below Sacramento.
Most available water is running down river to the Pacific

 

[Fixastuff]

The ops post premise is incorrect for my area.

Most of the crops grown around here are not for human consumption. Corn is either for ethanol or feed. Soybeans get used for making plastics. Cotton doesn't taste very good. Peanuts are the only thing grown in large scale that gets eaten by humans as far as I know.

 

[PuffyC]

The problem isn't using farmland to build solar farms, it's that we lack the vision to see beyond centralized power distribution. All that feeds into many people's desire for something - anything - to keep change and progress from happening.

 

[Hay Dude]

Saw a picture a while back of a parking lot in Australia where the parking lot had solar panels built above it and cars parked underneath. I'd say that outfit had the right idea

Thats going on all over America, too. Local dairy has their fleet of deliver trucks parked under a huge lean-to roof of solar panels

 

[Grumpycat]

The problem isn't using farmland to build solar farms, it's that we lack the vision to see beyond centralized power distribution. All that feeds into many people's desire for something - anything - to keep change and progress from happening.

Fortunately for most of us it is still the farmer’s decision as to what crop one chooses to farm. Be it corn, cattle, hay, or electricity.

 

[5030]

Thats going on all over America, too. Local dairy has their fleet of deliver trucks parked under a huge lean-to roof of solar panels

Better than putting a solar installation on fertile ground. I refuse to call them 'solar farms'. Nothing about them even remotely has to do with farming. They are industrial installations.

 

[cqaigy2]

Yes, they started sending the water to LA
They have gone a lot further than that now.
Almost no water going to south California Valley Farms below Sacramento.
Most available water is running down river to the Pacific

Sure they started it, but they continued it thru out the decades, don't be blaming some fish for our taking all the water. Even if there was nothing getting back to the Pacific, those farmers would be in trouble.

 

[PuffyC]

Nothing about them even remotely has to do with farming. They are industrial installations.

Like server farms and cube farms, but not to be confused with farm leagues.

 

[LHF2019]

What I find interesting is the adamant feelings by most that a person should be allowed to do with their own land what they want to do, without government interference. Yet when said person (usually farmers) leases their land to solar or wind projects, the same people are outraged, and want government to stop it.

You can't have it both ways, folks.

These panels need to be on top of stuff. Industrial plants, shopping centers, office complexes, hospitals, schools, parking garages, etc. There is plenty of acreage available that way and it's a lot closer to the places of use.

The shade under them would help keep the buildings from being so hot which would help reduce cooling requirements. Plus they could be used to heat water which would also reduce power consumption.

Who goes out into all these farm field areas to shovel snow off the panels?

This is close to being reality for my area. Just over the border in NY there is a large swath of available farm land in the solar panel program. The town is pushing hard because they want the tax dollars. Broke down like this $4000 to be in the program, IF they build $800/acre/year. I also am at risk of losing a field. A 50 acre chunk of hay ground that I rent. I also live in NWPA where we are happy WHEN the sun shines. All NY is waiting is a few pen strokes. What I have heard is substations are planned and ready to go. The issue is these companies just want an easy build. Large plots of ground they can destroy and guess what large plots are utilized for.........lots of ag production. To address the farmer has a right to do what they want is correct IF they own the land. The issue is these farm (my area) only own so much and rent a large portion of their ground so they don't have control and it can severely impact their operations if the landowner of ground they rent turn it into a solar panel waste land.


The rumor is once the panels go in this becomes sheep country.