Putting solar panels on land used for biofuels would produce enough electricity for all cars and trucks to go electric
ourworldindata.org
The world dedicates a Poland-sized area of land to liquid biofuels. Is there a more efficient way to generate energy?

Besides we can still use that same land for crops with agrivoltaics

  • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    11 days ago

    You couldn’t come up with a less efficient form of solar power if you tried. It’s there to subsidize US farmers.

  • hector@lemmy.todayEnglish
    1·
    11 days ago

    Biofuels are a scam. They get worse mileage, it takes as much energy to make as it produces, the pollution is worse, it leads to toxic chemicals from the agriculture being introduced into the environment, and it raises the price of food.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
      01·
      11 days ago

      All those talking points are courtesy of gas and oil. Any farming means toxic chemicals, ethanols only take energy because renewable sources are not used for distillation, and no farming used for ethanol comes from food crops.

      Most of the corn grown in the US is not edible, it is grown to make oils, sugar and plastics. Biofuels are carbon capture, the carbon released from burning is captured in a cycle for growth in the next season. But NY has several PR firms paid millions a years to counter biofuels , but in countries like Brazil where biofuels are common, people prefer E90 because of lower cost and motors lasting longer because of no gasoline burning by-products.

      • 3abas@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 days ago

        lol okay I get being suspicious of oil and gas bs, but some of what you said about ethanol is just not right…

        In the US most ethanol is made from corn. It’s usually field corn, not the kind you eat like corn on the cob, but it’s still part of the food system. It turns into animal feed and all the corn ingredients in processed food, so saying “no ethanol comes from food crops” doesn’t really hold up.

        Also yeah you could power the distillation with renewables, cool, but that doesn’t magically fix the bigger issues people point to: growing more corn usually means more fertilizer and more runoff and more land pressure. You know how much fertilizer corn takes?

        That’s not just “oil talking points,” that’s just what happens when you scale it… i’m not saying ethanol is pure evil or whatever, but dismissing the criticism as all oil propaganda is doing the same thing in reverse. It’s certainly not the climate justice solution they’ve sold it as.