deploying solar panels over farms increases crop yields by up to 18% by preventing them from getting scorched, meaning huge solar power plants can be built with no harm to natural landscapes
Discussion
Loading...
@beka_valentine When I argue that the question of should we build space data centers does not depend on whether it is feasible or economical, this is what I'm talking about. Even if one wants to build massive solar AI compute farms it is almost certainly better to do it here on earth.
@beka_valentine Ah, you've been spared the endless and in my opinion pointless debate about whether space data centers can work at a technical level. Even if they are economically and technically workable they're a bad idea, there's no reason to spend energy on irrelevant minutia.
@mirth I think I don't care if we build them once we have lots of people living in space in self organizing communities and not company towns, but right now, data centers in space will simply entrench capital more, which im sure is part of the appeal
@beka_valentine My main problem with doing high-mass things in space is we have no likely path to low/no carbon launch so it's going to a lot of emissions. For things like imaging, positioning, communications relays it's arguably so useful as to be worth it (weather forecasts save lives) but that's a whole different scale compared to manufacturing, datacenters, permanent habitation, etc.
@beka_valentine Rutgers Uni in New Jersey USA is doing much the same thing. https://agrivoltaics.rutgers.edu
@beka_valentine probably going to be necessary if this "winter," on the west coast is any indication.