Re:James Lovelock has died
by StillBored on Friday July 29, 2022 @06:18PM
(#32282412)
You wouldn't build a solar farm particularly close to any of the major TX cities which sprawl for long distances because the land is worth more than the solar panels.
A 10MW+ solar installation costs > $100,000/acre. You can find land within 200 miles of the major cities of Texas for far less than that (and probably much closer than 200 miles). Or you can go far to the west to get land at maybe $1000/acre, but then transmission cost goes up.
If land cost ever were a serious constraint on solar, solar would have become so cheap that it would already have destroyed all the competition.
Solar can be placed almost anywhere in Texas, and in particular can be placed near where demand is expected. Transmission costs for it should be less than for large central power plants.