On: Giant batteries and cheap solar power are shoving fossil fuels off the grid

[mattferderer]

Solar farms are spreading & starting to take over a lot of quality farmland in the northern midwest because of the scale/price reasons you suggest.

[outworlder → mattferderer]

Farmlands are already solar arrays. They are just making power rather than produce now.

[beat → mattferderer]

Wind farms, maybe. I'm not seeing a lot of utility-scale solar (yet) around here. I'm in MN and travel to IA regularly, past the enormous wind farms. A wind farm has negligible impact on farmland use.

[mattferderer → beat]

MN has been a big proponent & has several. IL just passed a energy jobs act & looks to have a few being built. ND is about to build their first one to supply electricity to MN I believe.

There are studies on mix use farmland & solar. Some crops work well. Also in some scenarios it seems as if solar farms are becoming more profitable than crops.