A 1-megawatt turbine has a blade diameter of 50 meters. That’s not only a big commitment, but might require FAA approval.
Some farms are dairy and egg ranches are energy intensive with large barns that could be covered in solar panels which are becoming cheaper and better with each passing year. As I said batteries are the key and for a large farm, they might even use a future zinc chemistry in shipping container sized batteries for main storage. Lots of farming operations don't involve plowing huge sections of land, some kinds of gardening, grazing and animal husbandry can be done with solar panels in the fields when they are raised and spaced properly.
I'm not a big fan of wind and favor solar because of cost and longevity, solar farming depends on better batteries just like 10 mile per kilowatt hour compact solar charging cars. Halve or quarter the battery mass for the same power and it opens a world of possibilities, increase battery life spans and it opens up even more. This isn't pie in the sky either but should be the result incremental but rapid improvements with each succeeding generation of various types. We now have more types of batteries than ever before on the market with several more coming over the next 5 years. For many chemistries we are not even close to the theoretical limits of storage capacity. Gas stores a lot of energy, but we can only extract around 30% from it for mechanical motion, batteries and electric drive are around 90% efficient, excluding charging energy, so that has to be taken into consideration when comparing the potential of the two.
Farmers are big on coops around here, I used to buy all my grow supplies at the country store run by the local farmers coop. When farmers or part of some specialty operations go solar, they will be involved, getting wholesale prices for their customers and many of them are DIY types by necessity. Nothing of significance will happen in farming until the battery plants are overbuilt like the solar panel plants and prices plunge. There is already a large oversupply of solar panels and polysilicon factories causing prices to drop like a rock in China and here as they try to dump them, and we are building more solar panel factories in the west! Then there are all those breakthroughs they have been announcing about improving the longevity and efficiency of perovskites with the prospect of cheap flexible solar panels, even transparent ones. I think in the near term, storing the power will be more of an issue than generating it.
Opps better keep this in the climate change thread!
This deserves to be given more attention. Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who reports to Merrick Garland has indicted a high ranking Democratic Party Senator on corruption charges. I'm sure that the Republican base are hooting about this because somebody in the other tribe was charged. Though maybe Republican leaders aren't so happy about this. Because the message I'm getting is that the DOJ will investigate corrupt officials without bias or consideration of the power they wield in Congress. The Republican Party suffers from the same problem every authoritarian political establishment suffers from. Trump's administration was so corrupt that in order to get ahead, its leaders had to commit corrupt acts just to maintain their campaign war chests and influence others. They should be afraid. Very afraid.
Why do you make the connection between Menendez's indictment and the NJ governor being "gone ASAP". I read the link in that tweet and there is no mention of Phil Murphy.
It might mean Shumer will want his resignation faster, we are in the realm of politics here and a replacement could be lined up. I don't expect him to resign until convicted though, even if it looks like they got him by the balls with gold bars and cash. It looks bad, a simple corruption scandal that is very easy to understand, cash for favors. I wish they would apply the same standard to Justice Thomas, and this might be part of the windup to do that, from what I've seen he's guilty as sin. Thomas's behavior must disgust Garland...
I'm referring to your saying the NJ Governor being "gone ASAP". Did you just make a mistaken reference or do you have something to share about him?
I believe the governor appoints his successor until there is an election, it varies state by state.
I think I misread your post. I interpreted you as saying that the governor will be gone ASAP when what you really meant is because the governor is a Democrat, Menendez will be gone ASAP.
Even if only indicted, the case against him appears as strong as Trump's MAL case and he will be like a millstone around the neck of the party for as long as he's around. If he resigns a lot of the news coverage will go away and if a democrat can appoint his replacement until things cool down and there is an election or he completes his term, so much the better. If Bob goes away, it won't upset the balance of power in the senate which is an important consideration, his trial could take a while with bad press all the way. If they have him dead to rights and by the balls then he should resign for the good of the country and to show democrats are different than republicans, at least when they get caught! It might even make a difference in his sentence, a show of good faith and patriotism.
It read same to me.
