alt Hacker Newslittle known fact: US currently grows a lot of corn for ethanol production. If we replaced that all with solar panels we'd have plenty of electricity. The solar vs farm debate is usually framed as a tradeoff with food production but that's not really true
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/new-study-compa...
> The USDA now expects 5.65 billion bushels of corn to be used for ethanol production in 2026-27
> The department has raised its corn production forecast by 234 million bushels to 16 billion bushels.
https://bioenergytimes.com/usda-raises-2026-27-us-corn-use-f...
About a third! Way more than I thought. I wonder how much of that would have to be covered in panels to get the same energy.