Most of the world’s grain is not eaten by humans

Re:Most of the world’s grain is not eaten by humans by mattashii on Sunday June 26, 2022 @04:28AM (#31882111)

The actual delta is indeed huge, but there were some mistakes in your calculation that result in an answer that is off by some orders of magnitude.

Assuming your initial numbers are correct, the approx 1e10 should be 1e7 (rounding down from 4.5e7), as 1 million sqm equals 1 sqkm (this is different from 1 kilo square meter; see cube square law etc.)

You also do not take into account that solar panels have an expected lifetime of over 20 years - your current calculation seems to want a panel produced every year for every field.

Taking these into account brings the production defecit factor down to ~ 1e5, which is still unfathomably huge but at least marginally more achievable than the 1e9 answer you got.

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Re:Most of the world’s grain is not eaten by humans by pg314 on Sunday June 26, 2022 @04:35AM (#31882140)

The initial number of 1 square kilometer of PV panels produced per year doesn't pass the sniff test. An average home installation is already 10 square meters, and a lot more than 100,000 installations are added in a year.

The global production of solar panels was 180 GW in 2020. Assuming around 200 W per square meter, you get 1 billion square meters of solar panels. So their initial number is off by a factor of 1000.

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Re:Most of the world’s grain is not eaten by humans by danielheath on Monday June 27, 2022 @01:39AM (#31890938)

Thanks, that's actually quite close to the method I used but I've clearly dropped a unit somewhere.

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Re:Most of the world’s grain is not eaten by humans by ncmncm on Sunday June 26, 2022 @05:20AM (#31882346)

Home installations are usually at several times 10 square meters, or more. 50 is common, 100 seen.

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