Two Minnesota solar farms planted native grasses and wildflowers beneath their panels. Five years later, flowering plant species had increased sevenfold, native bee numbers more than 20 fold and total insect numbers had tripled, while more bees were also visiting nearby soybean fields.

[u/ArgentineBeauty]

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/two-minnesota-solar-farms-turned-the-ground-beneath-their-panels-into-habitat-and-native-bee-abundance-rose-more-than-20-fold/36680/

[u/Krillin113]

Solar needs to be put on agricultural land

[u/Gladiateher → u/Krillin113]

I partially agree, but the good news is we have multiple fantastic options:

https://www.euronews.com/2023/11/13/float-ovoltaics-how-floating-solar-panels-in-reservoirs-could-revolutionise-global-power

We have rooftops, desert and grasslands, reservoirs and bodies of water, and so much more.

Historically red Texas and Florida are both leading the nation in solar, wind, and battery right now.

I truly believe we’re in the midst of a green revolution, and I personally think with one more small breakthrough in battery technology our entire society is going to start transforming in some pretty mind bending ways.

[u/SerHodorTheThrall → u/Gladiateher]

Historically red Texas and Florida are both leading the nation in solar, wind, and battery right now.

Why do people just outright lie? California is the outright leader in solar and has been for a long long time, in both raw output and the % of total state power generation. Florida is neither impressive in either its raw generation per capita or the % of its total power, despite being the ideal solar region. And in Texas, all the capacity is for corporate AI interests. None of that power is going to fucking housing. You need to be quite the imbecile to trust Republicans, who put is in this mess, to pull us out.

Anyways, here's the number that really matters. State power usable to power homes:

Texas: ~200,000 homes

Florida: ~2,000,000 homes

California: ~20,000,000 homes

lol, lmao even

[u/Gladiateher → u/SerHodorTheThrall]

Unfortunately you have totally missed my point lol.

I’m not denigrating California nor glazing Texas, nor have I lied at all. I’m simply citing a different statistic than you for a completely different reason.

For your pedantic POV though, I’ll be more specific, Texas is leading the nation in new install and has recently passed CA in utility scale solar power generation.

To be clear to you my analytical friend, the reason this matters and the reason me and others are excited is because CA is already “on the team”

Until very recently, the idea that “drill baby drill” Texas and “Insane swamp conservative” Florida would be participants in a green revolution was an absolute pipe dream, but that’s not the case anymore. THATS why it’s worth talking about, it’s not glazing or lies, it’s a fact, a massively encouraging one.

Look past your knee jerk reaction at the big picture we have an opportunity here, a massive one, we have to address the climate crisis together with as many participants as we can, and even the reds are on board.

My talking points can be used to convince other conservatives in fact, if they object to green tech you can ask them about Texas and Florida and challenge their pre-conceived notions.

[u/SerHodorTheThrall → u/Gladiateher]

Wow. I'm so excited for all our limited installation capacity to go to AI data centers and "utility" usage. Doesn't matter that we throttle access for local panel distribution as long as the money number go up for Elon Musk and Donald Trump! Yay dystopia!

You're clearly a fool to think the people destroying the EPA and nuking things like the Department of the Interior are going to work with you on climate. Absolutely incredible.