L R AS Published on Monday 14 March 2022 - n° 397 - Categories:various sectors
Maize, widely grown but not very profitable
The US uses large areas to grow corn. Nearly half of the acreage (40 million acres of the 92 million planted with maize each year) is used primarily to increase the octane rating of gasoline used in cars.
If this land were reallocated to solar energy, it could provide about three and a half times the electricity needs of the United States.This is equivalent to almost eight times the energy that would be needed to power all the country's passenger vehicles if they were electrified.
If the US were to turn those 40 million acres of corn for gasoline into solar and food energy (agrivoltaics), it could still meet 100% of its electricity needs, while powering a national fleet of electric vehicles.
According to Berkeley Lab, industrial-scale solar power in the US generates between 394 MWh and 447 MWh per acre per year. One acre of installed solar provides enough energy to power the most popular electric vehicle in the US - the Tesla Model Y - for nearly 1.3 million miles per year.
Solar panels produce about 200 times more energy per acre than corn. This striking figure makes a compelling case for converting vehicles to electricity
Maize is particularly good at absorbing nutrients from our soils. Returning these nutrients requires the use of fossil fuel fertilizers and produces moreCO2 emissions than any other man-made chemical process on earth.
PV Magazine, 11 March 2022
Editor's note: The article highlights an anomaly in the world: using a water- and nutrient-hungry plant to improve the quality of the gasoline. The quality of the soil must then be restored with chemical fertilisers.
This circuit was necessary when thermal vehicles were used. We didn't know about electric vehicles. As soon as they are available, corn for cars will become less important.
