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.

  • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
    144·
    11 months ago

    The ideal of nuclear has a lot going for it but the reality is much more expensive than any other power generation. We need to let it go: revisit if research points to an order of magnitude cost reduction or if fusion becomes practical

    • BronzedBonobo@midwest.socialEnglish
      85·
      11 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·
        11 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.