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Hops for beer flourish under solar panels. They're not the only crop thriving in the shade. (apnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hops for beer flourish under solar panels. They're not the only crop thriving in the shade.::A farm in Bavaria is covering its hops with solar panels, providing electricity to 250 households and shading the plants from the increasingly scorching summer heat in the process.

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[–] evasive_chimpanzee 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Solar panels are about 70x as efficient in getting energy when compared to corn ethanol. If all corn ethanol land (which is heavily irrigated, fertilized, and subsidized) were converted to solar, it would generate 3x the yearly electricity needs of the US.

30.2 million acres * 400 MWh/acre/year = 12,080 TWh/year. US energy use is about 4,000 TWh/year.

We are already taking cropland away for energy production, might as well make it way more efficient.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do we use corn ethanol for any mass power production?

[–] Kage520 5 points 1 year ago

I think a lot goes into gasoline. Like a large percentage of our corn crops