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sam1wiseone
Senior Contributor

just put up some solar panels

62 Replies

Re: just put up some solar panels

94A276E5-271F-4E42-BFF0-61310AD9E4B8.jpeg

 way ahead of you. 40 acre solar field. 20 year lease that pays substantially more than any ag related things could / would. Local Power company paid for everything , all I had to do was get the zoning changed and get the conditional use permit. Operational since April 1.

sam1wiseone
Senior Contributor

Re: just put up some solar panels

good for you, now calulate how many 40 acre fields it will take to replace the fossil fuels in the above chart.

They are putting up a solar project locally about ,300 acres I think, on very good table flat farm ground.   I know the family that is doing it and they are getting paid for sure, but i have to wonder if they couldn't have found some HEL ground to put it on.    Was in Darke county Ohio over the weekend and there were signs all over against solar projects.

Something I've been wondering RJ, maybe you can answer, what happens during deer season when lead is flying all over the place?  Many of those panels get hit?

rickgthf
Senior Advisor

Re: Sam, you're just such a pessimist

  First, you pick the worst possible case, world energy production/consumption then you show the situation up to the present before the build-out of any significant renewables.

  In 2016, 5 years ago now, NREL produced a report where they used lidar (radar) and estimated that 23% of the roof surfaces of 128 major cities were suitable for rooftop solar and would provide 1.9  terawatt-hr of our current 3.9 terawatt-hr consumption. 

  Similarly, an NREL report indicated the wind power production of 10,8 terawatt-hr using just the windiest sites in a conservative estimate.

  Obviously, there will be a production-consumption matching issue at least the production potential is well within the range of consumption.

   Not only that, but this year the nuclear fusion reactor achieved breakeven.  It is entirely possible that the energy question might be solved sooner than you think.

   But the more important issue now is whether we continue to allow our societies to be held hostage by the fossil fuel producing counties & companies.

   Unless of course, that's your objective, convince everybody it isn't worth trying to change.

rickgthf
Senior Advisor

Re: And guess what Sam, ....

Over the weekend, my neighbor was using one of my bins to condition his barley.  He ran the blower for a few hours during the warm sunny part of the day using power directly from my panel.  Not one kilowatt-hr came from the grid, making the food production system just a little more energy independent.

sam1wiseone
Senior Contributor

Re: Sam, you're just such a pessimist

Fusion is 30 years away, if possible at all.  Thorium molten salt reactors are doable now, but progressives don't like anything nuclear.

You'd rather be held hostage by chinese panel manufacturers than oil produced in the good ole USA? Like I said before Rick, when it makes economic sense the government won't have to force people to do it..

 

sdholloway56
Esteemed Advisor

Re: Sam, you're just such a pessimist

Then we’re pretty well screwed since the sustained marginal  oil production that can be extracted even at these prices doesn’t exist.

Congratulations. Another big “conservative” thoughts and prayers win.

Re: just put up some solar panels

" i have to wonder if they couldn't have found some HEL ground to put it on."

** this is on a Glacial Drumlin... about the best crop ever is stones and rocks...

 

" Something I've been wondering RJ, maybe you can answer, what happens during deer season when lead is flying all over the place?  Many of those panels get hit?  "

*** its insured. It is in the city limits so no hunting allowed. Come now... responsible gun owners would never do such a thing as be irresponsible with their shooting ... 

we had hail a few weeks ago , golf ball to baseball sized and the thought was that it would damage some , inspected since with no damage.

 

" good for you, now calulate how many 40 acre fields it will take to replace the fossil fuels in the above chart."

**** I don't need to. There are plenty of places to place these panels. Think of every building being a sustainable power generating self contained unit. We could get along ways toward halving + , our other resources to make electrical power.  

sdholloway56
Esteemed Advisor

Re: just put up some solar panels

At least I don’t have to go to the coffee shop to find out whatvbitter old farts are sayin’

dwillinois
Senior Contributor

Re: just put up some solar panels

Actually a good place for the "projects" is in low productivity land 

Many of the big hog houses put these up as RJ said they are all paid for by the power co so that cost gets passed somewhere nothing is free  

Here they want to take prime farmland and turn into solar farms why would you do that in the middle of food shortages and inflation maybe thats why they want us to transition to bugs instead of beef 

I see some 20kw on farms around here I have no problem with that make hay while the sun shines or as long as some is paying for them 

But you cant power up a country on wind and solar alone everything should be used with each other 

To bad the same crowd who bashed corn for ethanol and raising the cost of grains and meats now want solar on same corn fields for Mother Earth