Down Sides of Green Energy

[Afrospinach]

Well, you also have to factor in the cost of building substations and other infrastructure, along with maintenance. The further out on the boonies you build it, the more expensive it becomes.

People forget solar farms also need water, to clean the panels. Really dry places also tend to be really dusty. The cost of building and maintaining in death valley would probably be quite immense.

[Deleted]

First off, I absolutely believe in climate change, and I do agree that something needs to be done about it. However, people often look at green energy as a symbol of perfection that can do no wrong. This I disagree with. I feel that everything has pros and cons, and to not look at cons is a mistake waiting to bite you in the ass.

The benefits of green energy are well known, but lets pause for a moment to talk about the far less talked about negatives of green energy.

1.) Solar fields take up a large area of land. Much more than conventional coal or oil plants. With an increasing global population people are going to need room to live and earth only has finite amount of surface area. If global population keeps growing and energy consumption also keep growing people may find themselves faced with the possibility of destroying national parks or infringing on land used for crop production in order for more large solar generation facilities.

2.) Green energy may create less jobs. While initially solar fields employ a lot of people during their construction, after the are finished it does not take many employees to maintain them. The reasoning is simple. Oil is hard to get. Oil take very expensive equipment and a lot of work to actually get out up to the surface before it even enters the refining stage. Plus, oil must be shipped to and burned at electrical generation facilities in order to reach transmission lies that must also be maintained. This all this requires a lot of work and specialization which in turn creates a lot of good paying jobs. In contrast, solar panels sit close to where the energy output is needed (for example on top of houses), this eliminates the need for transmission lines which kills off many jobs. Secondly solar panels do not need a facility to be converted to electrical generation because they pull it directly from the sun. This eliminates the need for energy generation facilities, oil pipelines, and severely impacts the trucking industry. Which intern effect the hospitality industry (gas stations, hotels, restaurants, etc). Some will argue that

Some will argue that solar specifically will create new jobs to replace the old ones, but it honestly seems like a total net loss of jobs to me.

1. Do you even have a clue how land is still open for humans to live on, it's a whole fucking lot. It sure as hell isn't paradise everywhere, but it shouldn't be.

2. Progress can make or break jobs, it's no reason to stop making progress.

[Vash The Stampede]

People forget solar farms also need water, to clean the panels. Really dry places also tend to be really dusty. The cost of building and maintaining in death valley would probably be quite immense.

Or just use a superhydrophobic coating and use less water.

[Molis]

As are lawns. And golf courses.

And home owner associations that prohibit solar panels on streetward roofs.

Not entirely true. I only knew this because my HOA tried it, and failed.

So I looked it up



Two dozen states, including Maryland have “solar access rights” laws that limit homeowner associations from banning solar panels. This law overrides your homeowners’ association contract that restricts you from installing the panels.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean your homeowner association can’t place a few community restrictions; HOA’s can still enforce where to put your panels, or how to install them– these laws usually say that some restrictions are still possible. But if your HOA denies your request to have solar panels installed, you can recite the law, or, in the worst case scenario, you can sue your HOA and let the courts decide.

[Osmeric]

How much neodymium do you need compared to coal?

Solar requires no neodymium (or other rare earth elements) at all.

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People forget solar farms also need water, to clean the panels.

This is optional, and isn't much water in any case.

[Najnaj]

Is op suggesting we revert to coal due to some imaginary size issues and unemployment rates? The only reason anyone would say this is if you have some personal interest in coal.

[LMuhlen]

Solar requires no neodymium (or other rare earth elements) at all.

I just assume he meant other forms of green energy which use magnets... Maybe for the generators, bearings... I don't know. But if he mentioned it, it was good enough for my point.