Serious Drawbacks to Solar Energy Projects Begin to Crop Up
Story by Ryan Tipps • 21h •
"Solar boom covers farmland that could feed millions," reads an environmental news headline in the July 6 issue of New Scientist. The author, Madeleine Cuff, goes on to say the "huge numbers of panels being installed on prime farmland (worldwide is) taking quadrillions of calories out of the global food supply."
Solar farms installed in deserts or low value pasture lands has always been the textbook image portrayed. Now they are here in force, and builders want to put them on nice, flat land close to existing transmission lines and roads. I can't really blame them. It's much easier to build roads and install posts if you have flat — or nearly flat — rock-free, deep soil to work with.
The Department of Energy estimates that the U.S. will need 10 million acres of solar panels by 2050 to meet net zero-carbon goals. That estimate is likely way low, considering the power requirements of data processing centers. According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, the International Energy Agency "projects that artificial intelligence's energy usage will rise ten-fold over the next two years." Some data centers can use as much as 65 megawatts, enough for 65,000 homes. By 2030, data centers are "expected to comprise 16% of total U.S. power consumption," CNBC wrote.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/serious-drawbacks-to-solar-energy-projects-begin-to-crop-up/ar-AA1osngD?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=1e18cf9cca63434687aaeeef81390563&ei=45
