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Originally Posted by Floppa
This only powers a single water treatment plant, how much land will we need to completely replace all the fossil fuels???
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From the scientific journal Nature:
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The potential land requirements and related land use change emissions of solar energy
Abstract
Although the transition to renewable energies will intensify the global competition for land, the potential impacts driven by solar energy remain unexplored. In this work, the potential solar land requirements and related land use change emissions are computed for the EU, India, Japan and South Korea. A novel method is developed within an integrated assessment model which links socioeconomic, energy, land and climate systems. At 25–80% penetration in the electricity mix of those regions by 2050, we find that solar energy may occupy 0.5–5% of total land....
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82042-5
Land use is really not a problem in Canada or the US. This of a solar farm as a photon mine. In most cases, it has a better economic output than the same field planted with grain. And with wind farms and agrivoltaics, the land itself can actually be used for agricultural output.
It would be good to push more rooftop solar on industrial roofs. But everybody always balks at the cost.