memes

Stop sharing this bullshit. It is a stupendously simplistic view that is propagated by those wanting to get in the way of cheap renewables.

Yes, it makes sense in some cases to cover parking lots, but it increases the price and complexity manifolds and the areas needed in open land are next to nothing compared to the area being used to grow energy crops today.

The meme should be “stop covering our land with fertilized, pesticide covered corn and rapeseed that go into combustion engines, cover it with solar instead”

Because it's not necessarily correct. There's so many fields dedicated to growing energy plants that covering just a part of those would be sufficient to electrify the entire transport sector. That's just fields for plants for Biofuels etc., not a single beautiful picturesque meadow, not a single field that grows food.

Of course covering car parks is a good idea too, but it's more expensive, and it's a climate change denier's strawman that covering fields would supposedly endanger our food supply or ruin our landscapes.

Two things have lead to that first picture though.

1. We've been underpaying farmers for a long time. Everyone buys from supermarkets, and supermarkets will pay farmers a meagre amount for produce. Cheap imports are further hammering the farmer. Hard to compete in northern Europe with slavery conditions in southern Spain.

2. We've been overpaying for solar too. Locking it to the rate of fossil fuel energy means it's well worth covering a field in solar panels and reaping the rewards.

Both of these should change, but since nobody has any money, it's a hard sell to make people want to pay more for farm produce, especially when you don't know who is soaking that extra money up. Capitalism says it's going to be the supermarket owners taking the lion's share.

Also warehouses. Also houses. Also literally any structure that already exists that isn't nature. If it is an energy consuming building, it should have solar panels on it. Parking lots count because cars are energy consuming devices.

If any of the billionaires actually cared about the planet or the human race, they would just dump money at a huge loss into making solar panels cost pennies.

I want solar panel Venetian blinds on my windows. The entire exterior of my car should be solar panels. Every roof everywhere should be solar panels.

I want the to see so much money poured into it that for $35 I could get a t-shirt with a USBC port that charges my fucking phone when I'm out in the sun.

But that doesnt make money. I guess the lives of a few hundred assholes is more important than making some super awesome shit that benefits everybody.

I fucking hate this time line.

It's called Agrovoltaics and it works pretty damn good,if you do it right.

The pairing can also offer some synergies. Solar panels can help moderate ground temperatures, provide shelter for livestock and help plants retain moisture.[6] For farmers the ability to produce electricity can help diversify their income stream.

Solar panels block light, which means that dual use systems involve trade-offs between crop yield, crop quality, and energy production.[7] Some crops/livestock benefit from the increased shade, obviating the trade-off,[8] such as green leafy vegetables, and spices such as turmeric and ginger, whereas staple crops such as wheat, rice, soybeans or pulses require more sun.[9] Agrivoltaics has also been used at scale in arid and semi-arid regions to stabilize soils, reduce dust storm intensity, increase vegetation cover, provide forage for livestock, and curb desertification, notably in northern China.[10][11]

How many times is this gonna get posted? It gets dunked on every time too...

I don't know. Sheep like to park below panels too.

"Noooo don't replace a tiny part of my monoculture industrial croplands used mostly to feed cattle with the cleanest and cheapest form of energy nooo*

Um, they do? Half the retail stores in my area have solar panels in the parking lot.

Here's the largest solar farm in California. It covers sand. Also, solar panels don't block 100% of the light getting to the ground, so different species of plants and animals can live and thrive under them. The land under solar panels is not lost to natural use. Life will adapt.

That said, solar panels over car parks is also a good idea. Both things can be true.

It can be really good to cover the fields!

Reduce evaporation, expand the range of plants that can grow and provide subsidies for hard pressed farmers

Protecting food and water resources are going to get increasingly important over the next few decades

This is emotionally resonant but it's actually sometimes better to cover fields. The right thing is not always intuitive.

Actually, with climate change in the back of the mind, covering fields with solar panels (not 100%, only partially) will reduce heat damage and water usage in the height of summer, and also protect the ground during cold spells of winter. So it is not that stupid after all.

That covering car parks with solar is a good idea is completely independent of this.

How about we don't cover our fields with car parks?

Saw a documentation a few days ago. It was about a berry Farmer who put solarpanels above his berries to shield them from direct sunlight. Works great! And He could replace all his transporters with EVs. :)

both. both is good.

It's not a bad idea to have energy production near where the energy is being used.

That said, it's not an either or.

Technology Connections actually did a great video on why using solar panels in place of crops can benefit the crops and actually provides more energy than the crops themselves. At least in the U.S., a huge portion of our crops are used for ethanol in gasoline anyway.

Pv is around 250-400 times more efficient than energy crops for Bioethanol. So 1ha of pv could free up 249 - to 399 ha of land. Thats an ultimate win!

This would work well in old mall parking lots -

I'll do you one better

Replace most city car infrastructure by bicycle infrastructure. The few remaining required car parks? Move those underground under buildings and parks. Then those places that used to be car parks, make those actual parks to walk and sometimes cycle in

Then move solar on top of building roofs