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Re:U.S. approves solar project in California desert by lazide on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @11:22PM (#27045807)
None of your numbers line up. You’re using US track numbers, but essentially zero US track is electrified. The little bit that is electrified is often underground and all of it is high voltage and won’t work with solar like that.

Next to said tracks though are millions of acres of land that wouldn’t have all the maintenance issues and would actually work?

It’s a similar issue with solar roadways - it’s a really impractical place to put solar; not even close to worth it maintenance wise or efficiency - and you pretty much always have better options literally 10 ft away.

Re:U.S. approves solar project in California desert by ben_w on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:22AM (#27047470)
> None of your numbers line up. You’re using US track numbers, but essentially zero US track is electrified.

Doesn’t matter. The engineering solution is known (as I type I am literally looking at overhead power cables above the street, powering one of Berlin’s tram lines). Use that class of existing solutions rather than asking me to reinvent it badly.

> Next to said tracks though are millions of acres of land that wouldn’t have all the maintenance issues and would actually work?

Great, so use that too, if you like. But the ask I was responding to was the idea we should use land which is already in an unnatural state.

Re:U.S. approves solar project in California desert by lazide on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @09:38AM (#27049641)
That’s literally not how any of that works at all.