PV Gap

Shawn Said:

Would an acre of solar panels yield more useful(grid) energy than an acre of corn?

We Answered:

Planting an acre of corn is not all that is involved.
The corn needs water, plant nutrients, some protection from weeds and insects, harvesting, planting tillage, and of course processing to make ethanol.

If you set out to grow corn in the desert where you might be planting that acre of PV panels, and did not provide a lot of extra energy plus water, you would not get energy, so PV would produce much more.

In the middle of a Kansas corn field, the most favourable place to grow the corn, the gross output of ethanol would come close to the output of solar panels but the net energy yield would be far less even though the solar panels would produce far less than they would in the desert.

Now comes the cost aspect. solar panels are likely much more capital intensive. They barely pay for their cost in the desert, and far less in Kansas.

Here is the problem. Ethanol plants too are capital intensive. At corn prices a couple years ago we thought that ethanol plants would be a gold mine. They are barely breaking even with current corn prices.
If ethanol production is not economical for ethanol manufacturers we expect corn prices to fall so that farmers will want out.

A desert covered with PV panels will produce more energy than a Kansas corn field, A Kansas PV field will outproduce an acre of desert corn.

If you plan to cover an acre of land with PV, do it in the desert. If you plan to grow an acre of corn, do it in Kansas.

In Kansas, growing corn or PV, you use up a good acre of food production capacity.
In the desert, you use up some hot rock or sand.