Hacker News Reader

Comment by bmitc | Hacker News Reader

What are the environment effects of that?

Somewhere south of the environment effects of building tens of thousands of warehouses.

Don‘t you think the environmental impact of having both warehouses and separate solar fields is certainly higher than having warehouses with solar panels?

Not that I'm advocating for warehouses, but I'm not positive that's actually the case. Warehouses can use vertical space much more efficiently than solar panels.

I met a environmental biologist (it was some similar sounding job) who does environmental impact studies for solar farms in the desert. He said lots of stuff gets displaced or killed when they install the panels. There’s no way to avoid it. It definitely stresses the environment.

The biological soil crust in much of the Western U.S. is easily trampled (a single footprint can do it), and takes years to regenerate: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_soil_crust

I live by BLM (open public) land of this kind, and you can definitely see the change in flora growing on a given patch of land for several years after it has been disturbed.

It may look barren, but the desert West is host to all kinds of critters: multiple species of ants, beetles of all kinds, lizards, horny toads, quail, rabbits, bobcats, ravens, hawks, owls, bees, wasps, butterflies, snakes, etc. etc. Why not put the panels on the warehouses where the land is already disturbed?

To your point, it can be avoided by not doing it at all. But you’re definitely 100% going to screw up the environment by installing panels on unspoiled land.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com