L4sBotAug 11, 2023

Hops for beer flourish under solar panels. They're not the only crop thriving in the shade.

https://lemmy.world/post/3032003

Hops for beer flourish under solar panels. They're not the only crop thriving in the shade. - Lemmy.world

Hops for beer flourish under solar panels. They’re not the only crop thriving in the shade.::A farm in Bavaria is covering its hops with solar panels, providing electricity to 250 households and shading the plants from the increasingly scorching summer heat in the process.

Show threadLazerbeams2Aug 11, 2023
Sounds good to me. My only real complaint about solar panels is the space they occupy. That complaint goes away if that space can also be used for crops. It’s a win/win
Show threadevasive_chimpanzee

Solar panels are about 70x as efficient in getting energy when compared to corn ethanol. If all corn ethanol land (which is heavily irrigated, fertilized, and subsidized) were converted to solar, it would generate 3x the yearly electricity needs of the US.

30.2 million acres * 400 MWh/acre/year = 12,080 TWh/year. US energy use is about 4,000 TWh/year.

We are already taking cropland away for energy production, might as well make it way more efficient.

Less Than Expected, More Than Enough | Ethanol Producer Magazine

Ideal growing conditions and optimal yields should provide a silver lining for the 2020-'21 corn crop following lower than expected planting numbers. It's

Aug 11, 2023 at 4:20pmWeb
Show threadTheMightyCanuckAug 11, 2023
Do we use corn ethanol for any mass power production?