Why Oil Giants Shell And BP Are Investing In U.S. Farmland
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Through partnerships with solar energy developers, oil giants BP and Shell are investing in an emerging industry called agrivoltaics, which combines solar energy generation with agricultural activities such as sheep grazing, beekeeping and crop production. This multi-use land management strategy could help alleviate the tension between farmers and solar developers, two groups that often find themselves at odds when it comes to matters of land use.
Chapters:
2:18 Land use challenges
5:08 Meet the farmers
8:54 A touchy subject
11:51 Next steps
Credits:
Produced and shot by: Katie Brigham
Edited by: Marc Ganley
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Additional Camera: Juhohn Lee
Animation: Mallory Brangan
Additional Footage: Lightsource bp, Silicon Ranch, Getty Images
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Why Oil Giants Shell And BP Are Investing In U.S. Farmland
Remember, the oil companies aren't in the oil business. They're in the MONEY business. And they know where things are going.
Propaganda?
@@chiquita683wtf is propaganda doing here!? Renewables are all possible because of oil
Many will just use this as "carbon neutral credits" but are still dumping CO2 into the atmosphere
still, EVs are not the solution
@@chiquita683 this news segment itself is.. the best propaganda isn't the most obvious. ;)
It makes sense that there is a partnership for this. Farmers will get another revenue source for leasing their land. Crops can fail or even worse there can be crazy swings in the commodities markets farmers sell in. Getting guaranteed income will give them more stability in the long run.
And animals can graze on the grass preventing it from overshadowing the solar panel. Win-win in my book.
It works best on grazing land because the panels also create shade for the livestock
This is a marketing play. Its insane to think that a few jars of honey or some sheep makes big oil the good guys. If you want green energy just build a nuclear power plant. If you want solar, put it on your roof and cut out the middle man. The guy literally says that he is paid to say what the company tells him and that his honey is given away for promotion. Don’t believe this nonsense.
Controlling the rent, house buying price, food supply, water and basic human needs is the main focus of the oligarchs and political class to take away all the powers of ordinary man ...They aim to achieve this goal by 2030 as set by the UN
@@ytzpilot There are crops that do well in shade.
Solar panels should be built over parking lots
The roofs of parking garages
parking lots should be replaced with housing & have rooftop solar
they are
@@pj3200think this depends on the area. For example some parking lots around my parts is for the homes since the parking can be stacked. This makes for more home space and clean areas for us. If we tossed the parking lots, we would have to build something for the hundreds that now need to put their car somewhere and can't just rebuild the land to have hundreds of parking spaces for it. Plus it would devastate the nature we preserved and love. On the other end of town, no one wanted to live there but business wanted to open. We got parking lots so we can now have people work at that end and still park near work. In the end stacked parking lots saved us land by not having everyone park on ground level.
I disagree, not only does this raise the cost of the solar panels, since now they need to be tall enough that vehicles don't hit them, but now you've made it harder to remove those parking lots and put the land to even more useful purpose.
Cool idea that should continually get better as knowledge and technology increase. I’m interested to see how all parties innovate to viably produce things other than sheep and honey.
Wow, I love your enthusiasm for innovation and technology! I totally agree, it's exciting to see how companies like Shell and BP are investing in new ventures. On a different note, speaking of power solutions, have you checked out the Segway Portable PowerStation Cube Series? It's a game-changer for outdoor enthusiasts like us, with its massive capacity, durable design, and fast recharging capabilities. Definitely worth considering for your camping trips or home backup power needs!
You have no idea what you are commenting on. Go see a thousand acre SF built on what wasforest land and report back eager beaver.
Land of ice cold goat milk and honey....perhaps sell islamic shares to snag middle east investments...perhaps consider Islamic population markets
The thing I don’t like is how they are allowing oil companies to also control the next energy wave which let’s me know the cost of energy will never go down
I understand your concern about oil companies controlling the energy industry. It's important to have diverse sources of energy, and investing in renewable options like the Segway Portable PowerStation Cube Series is a step towards reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. This portable power station offers a massive capacity and fast recharging, making it a reliable backup power solution for outdoor enthusiasts and RV lovers. It's an investment in sustainability and the future of energy.
Dont worry they are not smart enough to get that part they only know how to spend money.
Let them invest when u don't want to invest
Here is the 100000000% reason why farm land is hard to come by for more agrovotaics, it's because about 40% of all farm land in the US is used only for ethanol production that makes up less than 10% of the US fuel needs. Also solar farm producers don't want the extra hassle
I've been hoping that this would take off for years. It's so exciting to see it get started. I hope it'seffective and works out.
mf been thinking about this like a wet dream I dead bro!! XD
I've been driving past this for several years in the ACT Austraila.. When those solar farms were planned and built the there cost per/kw were multipuls of today.
A very telling comment was the cost of installation , by BP and Shell, per Giga watt; circa $1 billion per.
We have in this country (Aus) today people promoting Small Modular Reactors at costs north of $4 billion for 300 mega watts... bazzar. ( not really the country is a petro state).
This is a win, win, win for everybody! Not to mention those hard-working sheep can get some shade!
The CEO/CO-FOUNDER Of SILICON RANCH IS A TRICKSTER, with those words of you should just sell the farm to us because you guys can't deside what to do with it.. It don't matter if there is 5 of you brothers & sisters, the property is worth alit more if you just lease it to them because in the future like just 20 years it could be worth twice if what it's worth today.... Blessings to you all from Puerto Rico with lot's of love 🙏👍❤️
With proper planning for height cattle can be run under them too. Goats are and issue as they like to jump. Local large dairy herd has solar panels covering a major pasture area and you often see cows under them in the shade on hot days, two fit fine and based on watching them each cow has their friend and panel. Crops would be a problem due to all the supports. Free range chickens may work, but getting on the panels may be an issue.
Cows aren't used as often because they use the supports to scratch themselves. But with wind turbines it is funny driving in Texas and seeing cows creating a wind turbine shape in the exact shadow of the wind turbines.
the goats 100% will be all over the top of those panels 😂
Good point. It would have to be just the right crop, something harvested by hand like strawberries. And even then this will require advances in some of the machinery that is used (AI robotics in the near future)
@@j10001 as the video showed, sheep really are ideal. They do no damage to the solar panels and they prevent you from having to cut grass under the panels. It is a perfect overlap of space. Neither use impacts the other.
The fact that a grazing field gets you nothing in the winter while solar still can produce is something no one is talking about
Good point! 👏
specilly in sunny new jersey during winter super helpfull
Cool to see this is helping out farmers many family farms are disappearing working and living on the farm was alot of fun growing up .
Raised solar panels cold make a big difference in more arid areas by creating a cooling canopy for agriculture by increasing condensation and reducing evaporation all while producing electricity locally. More research needed.
It's an great idea for big oil companies. Collect subsidies for going solar, gain control of lot's of farmland, while pretending to be an environmentally friendly green company while still getting most of their profits by drilling in the ground for fossil fuels.
There is a dark side to everything but dual use land is an interesting take on land use
I mean that works for shell bp does not seem to have that same option
There's no such good thing when big companies has theirs hands all over the business
They aren't "gain control" of the farmland as they are leasing from the farmers for use like a person rents a store space for their store in a mall. The contract control what and what the companies can and cannot do the space and typically they are suppose to escrow the funds to remove all the installation at the end of the lease if the farmer opt-out (like when a landlord refuses to re-renter a space to a tenant).
Definitely better than them farming and refining for ethanol which gets mixed with your gasoline.
One of the major benefits of solar is that it can be localized to the exact location that needs the power. Creating these giant solar farms is just another way for corporations to siphon off funding from the government for green projects, and centralize the power distribution and the ability to profiteer off of it for themselves. Instead of subsidizing these fossil fuel companies, any allocated money should be distributed to the people or towards local governments to install free or steeply discounted solar panels onto people’s homes.
Domestic rooftop solar isn't very efficient and costs more per kWh generated. According to Lazard (a energy investment bank), the unsubsidized levelized cost of residential rooftop solar in the U.S. is $117 - $282 per MWh, whereas utility solar costs $24 - $96. The wide range is because solar output is very different in different parts of the country and the regulations vary widely from state to state, but residential rooftop solar is 3 to 4 times more expensive per MWh than utility solar.
I encourage everyone to install rooftop solar if they can because it has societal benefits and it spreads out generation, which makes the system more resilient, but if the goal is to reach 100% renewable electricity as fast as possible to avoid the worst effects of climate change, we should prioritize utility solar because it will cost a lot less to reach the goal.
Fossil fuels are what keeps civilization from collapsing and people killing each other, comeback to reality.
@@amosbatto3051Residential Solar should have "escrow" tax set aside for disposal / replacement.
CNBC always delivers knowledgeable and informative docu on any issue. Great work.
Modern farming practices helpful to farmers and environment is always much appreciated.
Shell : What do you mean by Oil and Gas? Our company is always about Energy in all forms. How about you BP?
BP : We are... British Panels
While there are some use cases for this, centralizing power generation is mostly a way to keep the power in utility companies' hands. Point-of-use generation putting solar on the roofs we already have, the land we've already covered with buildings, leaves agricultural land for productive agricultural use. And takes power away from the big for-profit utilities screwing us all.
This would be ideal, the issue here being that a lot of utilities do not want this and lobby against it.
You can not get the cost efficiencies other wise.
Productivity of land is determined by its annual renting income ability,if solar pannel can provide better rental yield than crops on the land then it is definitely more productive to lease it o solar companies.
As energy prices will increase more with decrease in fossil fuel usage due to pollution, solar pannel will become more economically viable for us.
You do realize that a central authority for distribution is still required, right? Load balancing is a thing that the average consumer is not aware of.
I agree with your perspective on decentralized power generation. It's important to explore alternative energy sources like solar power on existing structures to preserve agricultural land. By embracing products like the Segway Portable PowerStation Cube Series, we can contribute to reducing our reliance on big utilities and promote clean energy solutions for a more sustainable future.
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Numerous studies show agrisolar can boost productivity for the land. Shade at the height of the day can burn plants and panels can limit that.
Yes, and the carefully placed solar panels also slows soil evaporation and plant evaporation (evapotranspiration) which otherwise wastes tons of water per month.
If a plant is undergoing evapotranspiration, then it is under stress trying to cool itself off by pulling more ground water to evaporate water out of its leaves similar to how animals sweat to stay cooler.
SHELL has started to convert some of its stations to EV charging stations.
So far over 8,000 gas stations worldwide have been converted.
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Seems like a win win for everyone. Farmers get more money for the same land.
sheep get shade to relax
customers will pay less for electricity
Earth will become less polluted
And solar company’s get to make their profits and get professional sheep landscapers.
What they don't mention is the difference in spending from BP on solar vs new oil wells. The last sentence should be listened with the maximum amount of scrutiny and pessimism because all they really said was we need to make sure we accomplish the minimum requirements of sustainability to continue to receive funding and also be able to advertise as a green company without breaking the law in obvious ways. And just remember that 1Mw is around the energy needs for a small town so just remember the total amount of small towns in the US and also don't forget you need to over spec a solar array and pair it with energy storage. The math isn't mathing especially when you look at the salaries including bonuses and shares given to the top brass of oil companies as well as lobbying paid to government entities. They are clinging to oil because its easy and they want to not feel like they've wasted their investments from the last ten years but things are going to have to change exponentially quicker just to be able to slow down climate change let alone stop and reverse it. Some companies need to fail and go bankrupt unfortunately they are also propping up the "market" so they will continue to be bailed out. Unless oil companies can transition to 90 % renewables and or sequester more carbon than they are extracting we are simply not going to achieve anything meaningful in the next 10 years all while the stored heat captured by the ocean will continue to heat up the atmosphere regardless of our emissions.
Exxon and Chevron will end up like GM and Ford.
@@TheBooban hanging on by a thread for as long as possible until they change their products to finally comply with sustainability.
I watch all CNBC UA-cam channel things with a pessimistic lens, and this wasn't the first time they've done a clean up/ paid content piece in which they are trying to make you feel better about a company. It seems to me all their stuff is paid content these days.
If only these MNCs put money on actual solar power rather than just farmlands!
@@ecoideazventures6417 I know right. Just by sheer volume they would easily double any money they invest while crippling their competitors. They have the knowledge and capacity just like how BP was the first to identify the greenhouse effect
This is interesting mixing farming and renewable energy.
We always need farmers and farm land.
Además, es un inicio. Con los años, el propio ingenio humano ampliará hacia vacas, novillos y cabras. Además, creo que si están con las ovejas, tranquilamente pueden criar de forma rentable gallinas, libres y criadas en pasto.
Brilliant! This is what I've been thinking. Coexistence.
As someone who does life cycle analysis for research projects...
Multiple use land is an interesting proposal.
You could use less land for a single purpose if it wasn't shared, but there the efficiency of dual use is huge.
Without that these large solar plants on what could be farmland or forest has a large negative impact on local environments.
I'm still for nuclear over renewables because we aren't holding people accountable for proper recycling and disposal of turbine blades and solar panels. They just end up stacked in fields or landfills.
As someone who knows nothing about life cycle research projects I’ve been wonder for a decade why they haven’t done this earlier. Ditto with every roof. And why they had to move those endangered turtles when now they can have sheep running all over.
@@TheBooban - It adds some complexity to business operations, and there's a tendency towards wanting to maximize per-acre yields - you might only get 75% of your typical yield with mixed use development. Of course, going from 1 acre of solar and 1 acre of grazing to mixed use for both, you now have 1.5 effective acres of solar and 1.5 effective acres of grazeland, along with more insulation from variation in the commodities markets.
@arthurwintersight7868 , yep. There are definitely optimized business models.
Right now the huge push is for clean hydrogen.
I did an LCA for a very interesting use case merging about 5 different product streams for a company.
It was a really cleaver optimization going after multiple streams of tax credits while also producing multiple "low carbon" products.
Can't say anything specific about it for obvious reasons but I think it's going to be a winner.
Still profitable if all the tax credits vanish. But REALLY profitable with them.
@@TheBoobanthey have been doing this for decades, it’s called ethanol. Now it’s just called solar.
One thing I noticed in the video was the farmer said the solar companies wanted the perfectly flat land which is all the best farm land. Just stop letting them do that. They showed a clip of a solar farm on the side of a mountain in china. Do that instead. Land that is hard to grow on put solar. The sheep will actually control the growth under the solar as well which is more difficult to do with machines on steeper slopes. Where I live they have started putting solar up on old industrial land as well. That land usually has issues from whatever was on it before. Putting solar on that puts that land to work. Hopefully by the time the solar panels are no longer any good they can just pull everything out and have land that is maybe healthier after resting for a couple of decades.
Why aren't we building solar on every commercial rooftop / parking lot. The amount of space available is more than enough to satisfy the thousands of square miles needed to power the whole country. There are so many benefits: dual use of land without taking away farm land, local use with less transmission loss, pre-made infrastructure to build on top, ease of connection to the grid, local maintenance and repair, as well as shading for humans and cars. Please reply with benefits that I have not mentioned. There are so many benefits for the cost of some extra investments. Why isn't the government doing more to promote this?
Just look at your cities. Trash everywhere, scaffolding everywhere in NYC. People shoved in front of subways. How you expect your government to legislate any good idea?
It's ideal in terms of adding to otherwise destructive land usage, but the capital costs are higher because of the higher heights and wider spacings required to fit cars underneath. For now it seems governments are still trying to get installation of solar in general off the ground, and securing supplies of all the new panels to get costs down so that subsequent subsidies (which the many pro-libertarian critics keep categorically calling "government waste") also don't need to be as high and vulnerable to ongoing politics.
Thanks for the reply. I was rethinking the problem and thought that much less parking lots will be needed in the near future with autonomous EV. Hopefully by that time, solar will so cheap and efficient that they will be everywhere, especially rooftops.
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Because the companies BP and Shell both know that they are going to lose against renewable energy.
No they won't. They are just diversifying, and it's good PR.
They won't lose. They'll become the renewable energy companied
I hope this new trend lower the cost of lamp chop, my favorite!
Productivity of land is determined by its annual renting income ability,if solar pannel can provide better rental yield than crops on the land then it is definitely more productive to lease it o solar companies.
As energy prices will increase more with decrease in fossil fuel usage due to pollution, solar pannel will become more economically viable for us.
this idea and business model was originally developed in the northwest of China.
Finally! I was wondering why there are no sheep around solar panels
I have a feeling like this is a sleazy way to convert land from agriculture to commercial while still maintaining the tax benefits of agricultural land.
Great content!
Thank you
Your videos are always amazing
Sounds like a great idea! ⭐️
It's good to see USA's allies investing in our country. Do not let Chinese companies or individuals buying USA farmland.
Perhaps building solar farms on golf courses would be better instead.
Why ruin the sport of golf? Golf isn't just for rich people. A lot of young people like me play it. Plus golf courses are typically not flat enough for solar.
buying energy from BP > eating to continue living
One thing they forget is farmland, especially in the Midwest is concentrated in extreme weather areas.
Tornadoes, high winds, hale, lightning.
Solar panels are tougher than windows, and there are plenty of windows in the midwest. People LIVE with the tornadoes and hail. I’ve lived here my entire life, and somehow most of the buildings have survived. Solar panels can too.
Good thing then that solar panels are cheap and getting cheaper. The damaged panels can even be replaced even while the undamaged sections of the array still running.
Only need one experienced technician or engineering leading a crew of low skilled workers to do the actual repairs in 1 day to a week depending on how extensive the damage is. Again, most of the array can keep producing electricity while repairs underway.
@beyondfossil , they built an array south of my dad's place in the Midwest. Tornado wiped the whole thing out a couple months after it went operational.
Never rebuilt it.
Problem is properly disposing of panels is expensive too. $30/panel to recycle them vs $1/panel to send them to the landfill.
Your whole plant gets whipped out...
It's a huge mess. Not just panels, bent and twisted frames.
Lots of temptation to take the insurance money and head out.
Probably would have cost them twice as much to rebuild than the original construction cost.
@@getinthespace7715 Too bad we can’t just throw the panels in the air and pretend they don’t exist anymore, like we do with CO2. Did you know a single gallon of gasoline produces 20 pounds of CO2?
@davestagner , yep...
I actually do life cycle impact analysis for part of my job.
That's why I'm so cognizant of the disposal methods, and cleanup costs. It has a significant contribution to the CO2 equivalent emissions.
The fact that 90% of these panels are made in China also has a massive negative impact.
If we were manufacturing them in the US where we have stringent environmental regulations it would drastically help the total carbon footprint.
What about raspberries? They need a good amount of shade.
This is really good!
Smart move, Generating power & the sheep look happy, Why not raise the panels a little higher and have Cows as well, or even crops like wheat & barley, the panels can be folded to line up vertically when the machines are working on crop seeding & harvesting, and post harvesting the cattle will be oriented towards the harvested sections and steered away from the growing crops while generating power continuously
That's what they do in some parts of Europe. PV panels are at 5m high allowing tractors, harvesting trucks to go under. PVs are mounted on movable support so they can follow the sun or let more rain go through.
get those panels vertical, North to West oriented, and double sided
Why don't you have youtube timestamps? It is easier to navigate and listen to a specific part again.
Animals can rest under solar panels in a hot sunny day like under a tree shadow. Nice!
GOOOOOOD.......instead OPENING NEW LAND ,we can encourage farmers around the country to let us build solars on their farm land.
can someone explain how a 6.5 oz jar holds 8 oz of honey ?
Volume vs weight...
6.5 fluid oz which is a volume. If filled with water it would weigh 8oz. But honey is much denser and so weighs 8oz
At many places, the land gets too much sun, crops can not grow well because of that. With solar panels on this type of land, one can grow much more. Possible also: use some of the electricity to get water out of the air, give it to the crops.
really cool idea!
Have you seen the massive machines used to harvest crops? There is no way that you can put realistic panels out in crop fields.
Solar/BP already ran the numbers and that is why they went with sheep & bees.
Yes, the video touches on that toward the end.
mine bitcoin
Agreed not with those large panels.
S Korea uses a smaller panel strung up on cables in a grid, the power delivered is less per sqr foot but there are no limits to height so no limits to the amount of field used, the slope becomes irrelevant
The other costs include poles and cables but amortized over 25 to 30 years becomes negligible but it allows planting large crops under the panels.
It would reduce yields, much better places to put panels than over things other than crop land.
Freeways would be better.
Could help improve driving conditions too.
Less rain or snow on the road,
@@IMGreg..was going to say, just build them higher.
Good idea...❤
I see a potential to have two inefficient "projects" at one location rather than this being any kind of rational, targeted solution.
It seems obvious- but, if the farmers are too reliant on funding from non-ag sources, one could argue they are no longer farmers.
Where I live, solar companies have purchased or leased properties and cut down thousands of acres of trees.
Amazing technology
i wonder about the feasibility of using grain crops like wheat since it doesn't grow as tall as plants like tomatoes, though economically it's probably bad since it's usually farmed in large scale with large equipments
Grain needs sun to ripen. Blocking the sun doesn't worth for growth, and certainly doesn't work to harvest it.
What about the recycling of the solar panel? When the return ratio is lower after 20years ? What happen to the chemical sandwich in these panels ? How much is it recycled ?
In drought areas with solar panels, solid state water condensing panels can be added to the solar panels turning dry ground into productive Earth as water drips from the panels even on the hottest days, quietly and efficiency like the solid state coolers on CPU units within computers. Every school district should be producing more power than they consume adding to their budgets for the students, municipal buildings covering the facades with solar panels. If every home had just one solar panel where there was none, parasitic power loss would be eliminated and the grid wouldn't be overwhelmed by the power traveling in all directions in small quantities, preferably with the private ownership and benefit, the cost of the power meter probably more expensive than the panel.
BP service stations in Australia are probably the worst due to lack of maintenance and staff training...I usually go to Shell or Woolworths Caltex
I would much rather see us cover impermeable surfaces first with solar before we decommission arable land, but there are some very good points made in this video that I cannot really refute otherwise.
Arable is a silly word. In most places it takes an acre per cow. In Texas it takes 10 acres per cow...and that is considered arable also. Using Texas land for solar doesn't decrease, at all, the amount of livestock Texas can produce.
@@PeterSedesse Why and where is 'arable' a silly word? In a classroom of 1st graders who have never heard the word 'arable' and who giggle at the word "poop"? It is a perfectly used word for my post and YES - using Texas land, or any land that is covered over by solar panels, will have a decrease in vegetative productivity. Plants need sunlight X Sunlight taken by solar panels does not reach vegetation = reduction of vegetative production.
@@Jason4Star it is just a vague term that describes a large range of land uses. As I stated, in Tennessee 10 acres of arable land can feed 10 cows, in Texas 10 acres of arable land can feed 1 cow. Losing 10 acres of arable land in Texas or Wyoming is not a big deal because while it is 'arable' it is essentially worthless. Also you have no farming experience. For like 30% of the USA, farming is hindered by too much sunlight. You can't grow crap in Texas because of too much sun. Even in mid states we need to use shade cloth to get vegetables to grow. No plants need the amount of sun we get in Texas. Almost no crops even survive here.
But there are also farming use cases where total sun is not optimal, especially in hotter climates, where adding shade actually allows more diverse types of farming. So it is not automatically true that solar leads to “decommissioning arable land.” In some cases, the shade creates agricultural opportunities.
@@PeterSedesse What do you know about how much farming experience I have? I have plenty, and in a southern state. Why would you try to assume how much farming experience I have? You know nothing about me. Odd. You can make a case against heat in Texas - as to why 10 acres can only support 1 cow - but not sunlight. Alaska actually receives more sunlight hours than Texas. Can you cite your source for this statement, "30% of the USA, farming is hindered by too much sunlight"? So where is this 30% of the USA where farming has a problem with too much sunlight?
You talk about west Texas, I assume. It's all desert there, or very near desert. In which case it would not fit the definition of "arable land". Perhaps you would benefit from a definition of arable land: adjective
capable of producing crops; suitable for farming; suited to the plow and for tillage: arable land; arable soil.
I know that in Texas people put cattle out to pasture on very poor land that I don't think that qualifies arable.
This is how nobles & serfs were in the Middle Ages & dark Ages.
Shorter height crops like alfalfa and soybean could likely be grown between arrays ..with the right spacing and harvesting equipment.
Fantastico proyecto! Hay que recordar que no se va extender a todas las tierras agrícolas ya que USA solo necesita 25 mil km2 para tener toda la energía. Eso es menos del 10% de solo UN estado como Nevada (280 mil km2) (también Musk concluye lo mismo). Es una gran forma de enriquecer las tierras y volverlas más productivas! combinando pasto regenerativo y paneles. Solo falta energía eólica para cerrar el circulo.
Put the solar panels in deserts - like in Nevada.
This is how solar should be done! so that land is not wasted.
We don't need to use a bunch of farmland for solar. Put solar panels on all roofs and over every parking lot and we will have more than enough. Along with wind, hydro, and geothermal to balance the mix, we could go 100% green energy this decade.
I was on a solar project in Virginia where they cut all the trees down and put in solar
Let's do the same over our water sources, every canal, river, reservoir should have solar panels over them.
Now imagine if the solar power pumped the water higher each day to a dam reservoir to be released as hydro power each night. Eliminates battery storage problems.
Looks like I might be getting some BP and Shell stocks.
This country is going to be so stinkin rich
This is great
Properly elevated and sized panels can also provide shade to sun sensitive crops extending the viable climate zones those crops can be grown in, which in turn can give farmers more crop options at planting time to pick the crop that is projected to be most in demand.
Why don’t y’all set these up on top of those big flat warehouse roofs and school roofs and building roof you have in town instead of coming out to the country and using farmland? I don’t tell anybody what they can do with their land even though everybody tries to tell me through the government what I can build and where I can build and how I have to build it but I’ll be damned if anybody puts up a solar panel farm on my farm in my lifetime
The sound of background music is too loud .
They are finding innovative ways to get all that free government, subsidy money and also turn a profit.
Like collecting social security and working.
@@brodriguez11000 Corporations, the true welfare queens of the country.
Solar canopies over parking lots. US has huge parking lots everywhere. I don't know why they won't utilize vast swaths of land that's used solely for parking a vehicle.
Just curious as to what the bees are pollinating on 😅
Those are beautiful animals I would use a fpv drone to do the Sheep herding around it works well with my goats I have the same dogs but they're not that well-trained it's very difficult to get the dog to move them it was easier to learn to fly a racing fpv drone once you've learned to fly it's a total game changer now I am so good I chase Hawks out of trees for protection for my chickens you have to be very good when you're flying close to expensive solar panels it's all about visualizing your surroundings if you manage to fly through a tree and not get hung up your pro don't let your skills go to waste I film for a true removal company so they can get their money from the insurance I make a little money now
So, a little known fact is that many honey bees used are not native to the United States. And hives can end up crowding out Native bees that often don’t live in hives.
Wouldn't have anything to do with them in the wef ?
What I want to see is for oil companies to get into new forms of geothermal using drilling and fracking technology. That is the future for baseline power generation in the US. Nuclear is excellent and ideal, but it's just not realistic these days. Projects take billions of dollars and many years to build. Then you have waste, possible targets for terrorism, etc.
Geothermal is safer and also green. Let's use the people, tech, and resources from big oil.
This could be good for beef and buffalo ranches. You get some shade for the livestock and grazing.
If only Shell and BP put money on actual solar power rather than just farmlands! Why they cant consider solar power as an investment worthy project even when common people are investing in it?
If you’re initial thoughts were that this is a good idea or will benefit you in a meaningful way I’d advise you to think again or rather think beyond what these for profit institutions put out.
Selling the land outright is probably a bad idea. Land will only get more valuable
Yes!
It probably doesn't make sense to install solar over crop fields since that would take energy away from the crops, but it does make sense for cattle and other farm animals.
I've always wondered if you could add a ventilation system to filter out the methane cows produce to reduce greenhouse gasses and maybe even take the stink out of the air when you drive past a farm.
More likely, precision fermentation and lab-grown meat will utterly demolish the beef and dairy industry, purely on cost. Cows are a really inefficient way to turn sunshine into food. Only about 4% of the calories a cow consumes are turned into meat or milk. The rest? Methane and feces. They require enormous amounts of water, too. Precision fermentation can produce chemically identical proteins and fats at more like 40% caloric efficiency. The main cost of livestock is feeding them. There will still be a market for high-end beef and dairy - fine steaks, fancy cheese, etc. But for fast food burgers and Velveeta? That will come from vats, not farms. Economics dictates it.
Sunshine is a whole lot of energy. The crops don’t need all of it. Can just rotate the panels a bit so underneath can get a dose too.
In some areas to much sun can be a big problem, using agrivoltaics like this can shade the plants and in some cases improve yields
There are no crops that need 100% of the sun in Texas. Planting rows so that the crops are shaded after 1pm allows a lot of crops to be grown here that couldn't normally be grown. You also greatly reduce the water needed
This is more about controlling food prices.., house buying costs and rent rates and in some cases control of access to water by the oligarchs and the political class...They seek to eliminate the middle class by the year 2030....It is why people like Bill Gates have suddenly become farmers and virologists.. People better wake up because the nuts are being tightened around you to squeeze you out...Not a good time to even have kids because the future is very bleak ....It all started in 2020...Why people should vote in Trump in 2024
Highly recommend watching Petroleum geologist Arthur Berman and Mineral Metals Professor Simon Michaux podcast Regarding this Green Energy and it’s future resources 😇
I am wondering how they will deal with the solar panel toxicity once the panels are no longer useful. These panels contain toxic heavy metals.
i think it's terrible that they are putting it on precious fertile usable land...Why not the desert...?...And it's supposed to increase by a lot, which uses up more precious land, yet we have all these migrants coming in...We need land with food forests, put this stuff in the desert...
Six ounce jars containing eight ounces of honey... that's the real miracle more people need to appreciate about solar power.
in most states honey is sold by weight, not by volume. its around 12lbs per gallon, or 1.5oz/f.oz. glass jars usually are a little bigger than they say, so i can believe what he says.
source: i'm a honey selling beekeeper.
1 fluid ounce (volume) of water weighs 1 ounce (mass). 1 fluid ounce (volume) of honey weights 1.4 ounces (mass). Therefore 6 fluid ounces (volume) of honey weighs 6 * 1.4 = 8.4 ounces (mass).
surprised you all didn't talk to byron kominek from Jack's Solar Garden
Man it feels weird hearing a tech CEO say "We'll have a flock of over 30,000 sheep"
"Our new co-located ASIC chips will cut our AWS fees by 30%, our new open source partner platform will consolidate our legacy data management systems, and our sheep production is THROUGH THE ROOF!"
We call those...employees.
This is supercool, it feels like the future is already here. Wow.
If a farmer and his family is getting good because of this I am totally okay...God bless Farmers ❤
Interesting
can someone explain the 8oz of honey in a 6.5 oz jar?