Recent comments in /f/IAmA

Sammy_Roth t1_j7vyt3a wrote

Reply to comment by mmahowald in I’m Sammy Roth, an L.A. Times reporter trying to figure out where to put all the solar and wind farms we'll need to fight climate change. Is farmland the answer? AMA! by losangelestimes

Hey, that's a really interesting question, thank you! I hadn't heard that before about higher-altitude land, although some quick Googling lends credence: https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/06/04/the-high-altitude-solar-farm-floating-to-success.

Overall, though, I think climate is probably a much bigger factor -- see these NREL maps of U.S. solar resource, showing how much stronger it is in the desert Southwest than elsewhere: https://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar-resource-maps.html

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mmahowald t1_j7vxyqk wrote

Reply to I’m Sammy Roth, an L.A. Times reporter trying to figure out where to put all the solar and wind farms we'll need to fight climate change. Is farmland the answer? AMA! by losangelestimes

hello, and thanks for doing this. have you looked into the relative value of land for solar farms based on geographic factors? I went to school in Gunnison Co and a teacher commented that we received about an additional 30% solar energy due to the altitude and i was curious if this would render high altitude land a better candidate than the large flat farmland.

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loubarajas OP t1_j7vxsbk wrote

Reply to comment by kungfuchelsea in I am Louis Barajas, and I am a financial expert. Let’s talk about inflation, layoffs, debt and making more money. AMA! by loubarajas

Thank you for this question. I'd like them to know that there is a lot of help out there for people who are hurting financially. There is a tool available for them to get help through Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI's). You can find this help. It's called the Opportunity Finder. You can go to www.opportunityknocks.net

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Sammy_Roth t1_j7vwxeo wrote

Reply to comment by CCCmonster in I’m Sammy Roth, an L.A. Times reporter trying to figure out where to put all the solar and wind farms we'll need to fight climate change. Is farmland the answer? AMA! by losangelestimes

I have a degree in sustainable development, which definitely helped prepare me for the reporting I'm doing now. I didn't study journalism but was the editor in chief of my college newspaper, which was amazing training. I've now been covering energy and the environment for almost nine years.

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Sammy_Roth t1_j7vwlo5 wrote

Reply to comment by Gaeneous in I’m Sammy Roth, an L.A. Times reporter trying to figure out where to put all the solar and wind farms we'll need to fight climate change. Is farmland the answer? AMA! by losangelestimes

Another good question -- sorry to say I don't have a great answer to this one. In general, I'd say wave power is one of several technologies that in theory could go a long way toward meeting human energy needs, but which is extremely nascent/untested at a large scale, and therefore pretty difficult to bet a climate-safe future on. Will definitely be interested to see if and how wave energy develops, and if so what the environmental impacts might look like.

Also, you're welcome!

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