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.

  • AbsolutelyNotABot@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    1 year ago

    Well people also complain on expansion of agriculture land so I don’t think consideration on land usage will disappear.

    Real problem is that many people want the energy source which is clean, cheap, invisible, safe, doesn’t consume any land or resources and of course has a easy to understand functioning. What could possibly go wrong ?

    • yokonzo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      Driving through rural corn country, you see yard signs at every second residence saying to keep solar out of farming land, so there is land usage consideration, but by the farmers themselves

      • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        30
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’ll bet that tune would change if we stopped subsidizing corn. I find it hilarious when “farmers” (read just land owners) talk about land usage being wasted like that without even thinking for a second about the amount of subsidies corn gets or the random AG pay to not grow. Which is the most wasteful of land usage.

    • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      There is that idea to ring the equator in floating solar panels. Not actually sure how viable that is but sounds awesome. Like something you do in that game Dyson Sphere Project. That would certainly alleviate any worries about land usage.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        The problem with plans like that is efficiently getting the electricity produced to the places where it is needed.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well people also complain on expansion of agriculture land

      They do?

      Where I live most people complain that agricultural land is being lost to urban sprawl.

      Reducing the amount of land available to produce food is not a good thing.