More energy on less land: The drive to shrink solar’s footprint
I just don&#x27;t see how land use is an issue worth worrying about right now, climate emergency and all. The federal government owns _huge_ swaths of sunny arid desert land in the west. It is largely not suitable for crops, livestock, suburbs, etc. We could install millions of acres worth of current solar tech out there and generate enough power for everyone. The real difficulty lies in the infrastructure it would take to get the power to where people are.<p>What we should be focusing on is transmission and distribution, those are the really hard problems. We could have all the power we want but if our grids can&#x27;t handle the rapidly increasing demand it does nothing for us. And as more people go 100% electric for transportation, heating, and cooking the integrity of power distribution becomes even more important because we will have put all our energy eggs in the electricity basket.<p>The only place land use seems relevant is for smaller scale off-the-grid cases where someone&#x27;s property is small but they want to generate all their own electricity.