Electricity Price Increases

[MossRoad]

Farmer Bob sold out because he could not make a living by farming... because EVERYONE knows all food comes neatly wrapped in plastic from Walmart, Kroger or whatever super mart you live near, not some piece of farm land that would better serve to store selfie pics.

Farmer Bob doesn't grow food around here. He grows ethanol.

 

[MossRoad]

Indiana. Lots of surrounding communities aren't allowing data centers. The locals here never wanted it either and spoke up about it, but either the local officials are getting something out of it or they're being bulldozed over by the state. There's a huge lack of transparency. My wife stopped at the local paper to run an ad and while there asked a reporter how to get information on it and was told there's none to be had - the state and local governments are completely shutting out the public. Lots of farm land and houses lost to eminent domain. That's another thing that makes me angry - the government kicking people off their land to hand it to corporations.

Where's that project located?

 

[Torvy]

Farmer Bob doesn't grow food around here. He grows ethanol.

The corn used for ethanol typically also feeds livestock. It can be fed directly (it's just field corn) or the byproduct after extraction for ethanol. Most of the corn grown in the world is not for direct human consumption. Sweet corn is a small faction of total corn production (always has been).

So, even the guys "growing ethanol" are also growing food.

Personally, I think ethanol production is largely not worth the effort. They need to improve the engineering of engines that use it and/or the processes for 'refining' it.

 

[MossRoad]

The corn used for ethanol typically also feeds livestock. It can be fed directly (it's just field corn) or the byproduct after extraction for ethanol. Most of the corn grown in the world is not for direct human consumption. Sweet corn is a small faction of total corn production (always has been).

So, even the guys "growing ethanol" are also growing food.

Personally, I think ethanol production is largely not worth the effort. They need to improve the engineering of engines that use it and/or the processes for 'refining' it.

We have an ethanol plant here. Most of the corn in this area goes to that.

 

[Torvy]

We have an ethanol plant here. Most of the corn in this area goes to that.

And the leftovers go to feed livestock after it goes through the plant. Even 'ethanol' corn is part of our food supply.

 

[DarkBlack]

Personally, I think ethanol production is largely not worth the effort. They need to improve the engineering of engines that use it and/or the processes for 'refining' it.

Running ICE on ethanol is a great farce.
If you going to “waste” farmland for making energy sources for machinery like ethanol for cars, instead of using the farmland for food , you might as well just put in PV panels, instead of urea fertilized cornstalks.
Farm Acre for farm acre, PV panel installations produce around 100 x more usable energy than the resultant ethanol.
Power data centers, whatever…
I’m not the biggest fan of battery cars, but, when it comes to ethanol, yeah, it’s a bad deal for everyone except the ethanol lobbyists, and big farmers profiting from the government requirements of ethanol ( because of the ethanol lobbyists).

 

[Torvy]

The panels aren't a reasonable answer either. They make aome sense on house tops and in cities.

They are not worth the loss of farmland.

The problem is the incentives make it more valuable to ruin farmland than to farm it.

 

[WinterDeere]

The panels aren't a reasonable answer either. They make aome sense on house tops and in cities.

Not only that, but installed over parking lots, they'd double as a roof to shade my car!

 

[MossRoad]

The panels aren't a reasonable answer either. They make aome sense on house tops and in cities.

They are not worth the loss of farmland.

The problem is the incentives make it more valuable to ruin farmland than to farm it.

It doesn't ruin farmland. In fact, it lets the farmland rest, reduces chemical applications and runoff, reduced fertilizer applications and runoff, reduces erosion, reduces fuel consumption, the farmer maintains ownership of the land, certain can grow under it, pollinators and bees can be raised on it, sheep can be grazed under it, and a bond is put in place to remove it once the lease period is over, or the farmer can up the lease if they so choose.

 

[ponytug]

Plus there are higher mounting versions that allow cattle and crops like berries that benefit from some shading. We are looking at adding some extra solar, and plan to use a higher cattle and horse friendly version.

Having lived close to and been around combustion power plants, I would take solar or wind "plants" over being a neighbor to other types of power plants, but I understand the NIMBY view of the world. "Put the power plant somewhere else", but eventually it is in somebody's backyard.

All the best,

Peter