We all see hundred and thousands of acres of solar panels around our states. Farmers are selling off farm land or they are tearing down trees to build them.
Why aren’t we just installing them on new housing developments and or retro fitting them onto existing farmers sheds? Why isn’t there a program to install them on new farm buildings? Can we not be smart about this?
Maybe it can’t be done?
I would also add using parking lots in malls, shopping centers, etc as there is a lot of wasted space there that could be utilized. Same thing goes for solar film windows on buildings.
Residential solar costs between 16-30k per unit and a twenty year payback in many cases, Community solar can be done for less than 4k per unit and be paid for in a few years. I do advocate some form of mandatory solar or new commercial projects. By most estimates we need 16 million acres of solar to power this country. We grow 40 million acres of corn for ethanol which creates smog, lowers your gas mileage 10% and is a +/- $2-300 loss to the farmer per acre, The carbon footprint of growing corn is greater than the environmental benefits ethanol might provide.