142
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 101 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Conservatively, using the land currently used for fuel ethanol production in the USA for solar instead would add more generating capacity than the entire capacity of the USA today. It’s a terrible use of land, not to mention energy and chemical inputs.

[-] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 2 days ago

I'm sure that something can still be grown in the shade of the solar panels, shade houses are a thing after all.

[-] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago

I'm sure that something can still be grown in the shade of the solar panels

Livestock.

Sheep grazing is actually a reasonably common secondary usage of solar farms

[-] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago

That's a very active area of research, there's a handful of farms on at least the west coast experimenting with utilizing solar in that way. Either to shade certain crops or as shade for livestock, while of course getting the solar energy benefits

[-] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

I read an article somewhere about how solar panels can (and are by some countries) keep the ground below cool enough to grow plants and crops and such when the climate is otherwise not suitable to do so. Quite interesting indeed!

[-] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago

To say nothing about water usage, which is probably an unsolvable problem.

this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026
142 points (91.8% liked)

Science Memes

19183 readers
1104 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS