Choice: food or solar fields

[Hay Dude]

Dang dude. Now I know what they mean by the nickname “pencil neck geek”.

 

[Hay Dude]

Solar and farming can work quite well together. It just takes a little planning. When we get the green light that solar is good then I think we will see a lot of planning of where to use it.
Warehouses and stores with huge unobstructed roofs. Farms with unusable land.
Windows in tall buildings using solar windows (yes they exist).
Solar roofing material for homes. And... when we see how much rebuilding our very old grid systems maybe big utility companies will start embracing home solar systems that put excess power back in the grid.

I bet if they knocked down North Philly and put solar panels there, they could get more energy from the sun and get rid of some crime infested slums.

Funny how once the faculty lounge ivy leaguers gets an idea, it always gets guinea pigged by the rural people.
Prisons, Nuke plants, solar fields, landfills, trash recycling, chemical plants, ordinance testing, etc.

 

[5030]

Nothing wrong with some nice lean horse steaks.

I'll pass, thank you.

 

[5030]

They shut off the water to California Valley farmers to save the water for the Delta smelt.

Delta smelt. That sounds kinky.

 

[5030]

I tried some of that vegetarian manufactured "meat" (Beyond, I think) a year or so ago. Once was enough. It was nasty, neither taste nor texture even vaguely resembled meat.

Ah, Soylent Green..............

 

[fishdrivel]

Not to worry, California has it all figured out!
They shut off the water to California Valley farmers to save the water for the Delta smelt. It is a tiny fish and there are probably five of them left. I'd love to eat one, if I get a chance!
Anyway, The dry, flat useless farm land is not growing food anymore so they should be able to find all the solar field acres they need there.
They should be able to get all the lithium they need by raping the indian reservations. We don't need beef either. Go Vegan! If you can grow the vegetables somewhere else! Beef farts are destroying California anyways.....

MSN

 

[orezok]

The lithium will have to come from open-pit mining.
Won't that be swell for the environment!
As far as what to do with the old

The rise of electric cars could leave us with a big battery waste problem

Carmakers, recyclers and tech startups are working to solve the question of how to deal with lithium-ion batteries when they wear out

www.theguardian.com

Not so. Lithium extracted from water at Salton Sea

 

[fishdrivel]

Not so. Lithium extracted from water at Salton Sea

Lithium is part of liberal plans. They control the media.
Don't trust what you don't hear!

Proposed lithium mine in Nevada would damage ancestral lands, critics say

A proposed lithium mine along the Nevada-Oregon border would produce critical materials for electric car batteries along with local jobs, but critics say the damage to the environment, including the ancestral lands of multiple tribes, isn't worth it.

www.kunm.org

 

[orezok]

Lithium is part of liberal plans. They control the media.
Don't trust what you don't hear!

Proposed lithium mine in Nevada would damage ancestral lands, critics say

A proposed lithium mine along the Nevada-Oregon border would produce critical materials for electric car batteries along with local jobs, but critics say the damage to the environment, including the ancestral lands of multiple tribes, isn't worth it.

www.kunm.org

Try to educate yourself

Lithium

 

[Rebeldad1]

The lithium will have to come from open-pit mining.
Won't that be swell for the environment!

that far out there wont be lithium batteries. we already are moving ahead towards sodium ion. by then this will be old hat.

As far as what to do with the old batteries, somebody better start working on that! They do not have a plan.....

not to fear there are several major companies that are recycling electric car batteries. Blue oval if i remember.... will have one or two in house.

 

[Diggin It]

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?

 

[JJT]

I agree all office buildings and big box stores should have solar on the roof. Even parking lots can be solar farms, with simple car ports with solar panel roofs.

The major issue is transmission, the grid is old and max'd out in most places. Sure the desert seems ideal for panels, until you realize there is no grid to push the power where it's needed - the cities.

Dirty panels and panels covered in snow still produce electricity. Today the panels harvest light in the visible and non visible spectrums.

If a farmer can make money on solar, good for him/her. They are farming the sun and the land is getting a chance to rejuvenate.

 

[MossRoad]

I parked in a parking garage for well over 20 years. The amount of damage, scraped paint, etc. on the concrete walls tells me that people parking under solar panels would cause excessive damage to the supports. You'd have to build them on pretty stout concrete supports. You'd also have to beef up roofing of most existing structures to handle the added load. Not just the weight of the panels and supports, but it would add a potentially huge wind load. I'd guess that the areas directly below the solar panels on flat roofs would see heavy water loads from rain as well. Rain is spread out on a flat roof. Put solar panel up there and the rain is no longer spread out, it's concentrated, just like where it comes off of your house roof if there's no gutter. All that has to be figured into an installation on an existing structure. New construction would be easier to deal with.

 

[Oaktree]

There is plenty of food and it is cheap if you shop right.

Agree there's no food shortage, but I'd like to know where to get it cheap.

 

[Oaktree]

The major issue is transmission, the grid is old and max'd out in most places. Sure the desert seems ideal for panels, until you realize there is no grid to push the power where it's needed - the cities.

I don't know about that. Many of the big hydro dams in the west are out in the middle of nowhere, so the power infrastructure exists. Would seem like those areas would be good places to put solar farms.

 

[kenmbz]

They have a number of parking lots in NJ that have solar and have been in use for over a decade.
Growing high water use crops in Cali never made sense and putting up condos on great PA farmland is sad.

I work in NYC and to miss the art and culture would be a catastrophic loss to the world. And not everyone there is in agreement with current policies.

 

[5030]

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

 

[HawkinsHollow]

We are going to "technologically advance" the human race into extinction. Mark my words! Been happening since the industrial revolution, won't stop till it ruins this earth for human habitation. We'll all be dead, but it's gonna happen.

 

[Oaktree]

We are going to "technologically advance" the human race into extinction. Mark my words! Been happening since the industrial revolution, won't stop till it ruins this earth for human habitation. We'll all be dead, but it's gonna happen.

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

 

[cqaigy2]

Not to worry, California has it all figured out!
They shut off the water to California Valley farmers to save the water for the Delta smelt. It is a tiny fish and there are probably five of them left. I'd love to eat one, if I get a chance!
Anyway, The dry, flat useless farm land is not growing food anymore so they should be able to find all the solar field acres they need there.
They should be able to get all the lithium they need by raping the indian reservations. We don't need beef either. Go Vegan! If you can grow the vegetables somewhere else! Beef farts are destroying California anyways.....

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