Two new studies suggest that devoting a small fraction of U.S. farmland to solar power would be a boon both for the energy system and for farmers themselves.
Two new studies suggest that devoting a small fraction of U.S. farmland to solar power would be a boon both for the energy system and for farmers themselves.
In the U.S., some 46,000 square miles of farmland, an area roughly the size of Pennsylvania, is currently used for growing corn for ethanol fuel. New research investigated the impact of using a small measure of this land for solar instead.
Only a small fraction of the farms now growing corn for ethanol lie close enough to a transmission line to be suitable for a solar array. Together, these farms cover just 1,500 square miles, researchers estimate, and yet, if they were used for solar power, they would generate as much energy yearly as all the U.S. farms growing corn for fuel. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
Wildflowers grow beneath a solar array in Minnesota. (Photo Credit: Dennis Schroeder / NREL)
