[ExI] What's Wrong With Academic Futurists?

[BillK]

On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 7:59 PM, spike  wrote:
> Ja, unfortunately the existence of tax incentives causes the solar panels to
> end up in all the wrong places, with your article providing a poster-child
> example.  Iowa has sufficient rainfall, topsoil and flat arable farmland to
> make it too valuable for ground based solar.  The vast American west is
> drier, more sunny, more useless for anything else besides collecting
> sunlight.  Those less-densely populated areas cannot provide the tax
> incentives, so they must wait for market forces to make them economically
> attractive.
>
> That's the bad news.  The good news is we are almost there.  With PV prices
> where they are now and where they likely will be in the short term,
> non-tax-incentivized solar facilities are experiencing a gradual take-off.
> We are accustomed to everything happening fast.  This one will happen, but
> likely will not explode like the electronics revolution and the personal
> computer revolution.
>
>

>From the article it doesn't sound as though these farmers think their
solar panels are in the wrong place. They are seeing big reductions in
their large electric bills, and some are almost self-sufficient.
In my experience, farmers are very careful with money - they have to
be! And they think long-term.

Farms have plenty of barn and shed roofs available for solar panels.
And even if they use a field, sheep will happily graze below panel
arrays.

News rapidly spreads through the farming community. You might be
surprised at how quick they change over.

BillK