alt Hacker NewsThe square km the US uses to grow corn for ethanol is about ~~ 1/3rd the total global area required for solar in this article. Ethanol that is a gigantic waste of resources.
They seem like big numbers until you compare it with the enormity of what we already do.
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nandomrumber • today at 6:52 AM
The USA grows something more like 121,000 square kilometres of corn for ethanol.
Or about 30 million acres if you’re in to that sort of thing.
https://www.wri.org/insights/increased-biofuel-production-im...
stephenr • today at 7:03 AM
Add in concepts like agrivoltaics and that land could still be productive as arable farmland while it also produces clean energy.
burnt-resistor • today at 5:55 AM
Yep. 5% of all US land is dedicated to just growing subsidized corn.
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Yes, and the corn-based ethanol here is used for "feeding cars" that have combustion engines, i.e. it's already used exactly for energy production. The most recent Technology Connections video[1] quoted some numbers on this. All this land dedicated to disposable energy production could be dedicated to renewable energy production instead.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM