The Biden administration has updated the roadmap for solar development to 22 million acres of federal lands in the US West.

The US government opens 22 million acres of federal lands to solar::The Biden administration has updated the roadmap for solar development to 22 million acres of federal lands in the US West.

  • BronzedBonobo@midwest.socialEnglish
    85·
    10 months ago

    Can we define “expense”? I consider the loss of public lands extremely expensive. As well as the care and feeding of the carbon based plants required to operate so the base load is maintained. I don’t know numbers, but wouldn’t such an expanse of new solar install demand huge maintenace costs - in areas increasingly prone to natural disaster?

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      10 months ago

      Doubt it. Solar has no moving parts, nothing has to feed it. It just works. Given the massive repetition, when something breaks, it should usually have very little impact, very little administrative overhead, no risk of making the land unusable, and the repair person should be much less expensive than someone working nuclear

      The article doesn’t say much about the land except “away from sensitive areas” and a fraction of that used by oil and gas.