In the US, it's cheaper to build and operate wind farms than buy fossil fuels

Re:In the US, it's cheaper to build and operate wind farms t... by thinkcontext on Sunday August 18, 2019 @10:49AM (#20730444)

We already devote really significant amounts of land to energy in the form of corn for ethanol, ~10% of total US cropland. Corn only captures 1% of incoming light vs ~20% for PV solar, so it would be a huge gain in land efficiency to replace corn ethanol with an energy equivalent amount of PV.

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Re:In the US, it's cheaper to build and operate wind farms t... by jacobolus on Sunday August 18, 2019 @02:10PM (#20731815)

This is a result of corn subsidies, not a naturally economically efficient land use.

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Re:In the US, it's cheaper to build and operate wind farms t... by mapt on Monday August 19, 2019 @01:29PM (#20739762)

Specifically, corn subsidies and the Iowa Caucus.

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Re:In the US, it's cheaper to build and operate wind farms t... by adrianN on Sunday August 18, 2019 @01:42PM (#20731633)

That's a good point. The amount of resources we waste on bioethanol are huge.

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