Really fascinating data. Limitation: "We don’t account for the fact that we’d need energy storage and other options to make sure that power is available where and when it’s needed (not just when the sun is shining). We’re just trying to get a sense of perspective for how much electricity could be produced by using that land in more efficient ways." - fascinating nonetheless.
EVs provide a lot of storage, but people tend to drive during the day and charge at night, so it might actually exacerbate the storage issue. Increasing access to charging stations usable during the day such as in employee parking lots helps, but short term storage is definitely going to need to increase.
I was being slightly tongue-in-cheek, but if we stopped fighting one another and built a planet-circling grid (I have ofc made a modest proposal for a US/Europe interconnector including wind generation along its route) then the issue would become transmission from where electricity is being generated to matching (EV) charging demand.
They lead with climate impact but the three main biofuel producers all pushed this as a way to achieve energy independence and to support farmers.
Of course solar achieves both of those goals better too. It reduces fuel imports (and/or leaves more for export) and provides another "crop" that doesn't have income correlated with other produce.
Related:
21GW of Solar for California Land That Can No Longer Be Used for Agriculture - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46488648 - January 2026
Ecologically informed solar enables a sustainable energy transition in US croplands - https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501605122 | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2501605122
New study compares growing corn for energy to solar production. It’s no contest. - https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/new-study-compa... - April 25th, 2025
Impacts of agrisolar co-location on the food–energy–water nexus and economic security - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01546-4 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01546-4
(~60M acres of land in the US are in production for biofuels via corn and soybeans, arguably unnecessarily)
Really fascinating data. Limitation: "We don’t account for the fact that we’d need energy storage and other options to make sure that power is available where and when it’s needed (not just when the sun is shining). We’re just trying to get a sense of perspective for how much electricity could be produced by using that land in more efficient ways." - fascinating nonetheless.
The land-use and EV vs ICE efficiency compound in:
> ... you could drive 70 times as many miles in a solar-powered electric car as you could in one running on biofuels from the same amount of land.
The article notes that the EVs have a lot of storage embedded, so the biofuels to EV problem might be considered mostly a transmission issue!
EVs provide a lot of storage, but people tend to drive during the day and charge at night, so it might actually exacerbate the storage issue. Increasing access to charging stations usable during the day such as in employee parking lots helps, but short term storage is definitely going to need to increase.
I was being slightly tongue-in-cheek, but if we stopped fighting one another and built a planet-circling grid (I have ofc made a modest proposal for a US/Europe interconnector including wind generation along its route) then the issue would become transmission from where electricity is being generated to matching (EV) charging demand.
They lead with climate impact but the three main biofuel producers all pushed this as a way to achieve energy independence and to support farmers.
Of course solar achieves both of those goals better too. It reduces fuel imports (and/or leaves more for export) and provides another "crop" that doesn't have income correlated with other produce.
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