With gas prices crossing $4 a gallon, the EPA says cheaper, more ethanol-rich fuel will ease the pain. The math doesn't really add up—but the risks sure do.
This is the argument they made over 20y ago. It’s proven to be completely stupid. We already know that a fraction of the land used for corn could instead be used for solar, and it would power the entire country. Using today’s solar technology.
Per Wikipedia, the world’s largest photovoltaic power station is China’s Talatan Solar Park, which generates 18,000 GWh annually. It occupies an area of about 420 square km.
4,430 TWh/18,000 GWh gives us 246.1 Talatan Solar Parks to power the country photovoltaically, occupying a combined area of 103,000 square km, or around a quarter of the total corn area. That’s not even very efficient in terms of annual electrical generation per unit land area, and it’s a mere fraction of the land we waste on corn
Also, corn has very low ROI for farmers even with “free equivalent land”. Corn futures prices have not risen anywhere close to 100% fertilizer cost increases this month. Solar has much higher profit/ROI potential than ethanol corn for the land owners, with far less work.
This is the argument they made over 20y ago. It’s proven to be completely stupid. We already know that a fraction of the land used for corn could instead be used for solar, and it would power the entire country. Using today’s solar technology.
I’m not trying to debunk you, I just like recreational math and blue text
We’ve planted approximately 95 million acres worth of corn this year. That’s about 384,000 square km, for normal people. In 2025, the United States generated 4.43 thousand terawatthours (TWh) of electricity.
Per Wikipedia, the world’s largest photovoltaic power station is China’s Talatan Solar Park, which generates 18,000 GWh annually. It occupies an area of about 420 square km.
4,430 TWh/18,000 GWh gives us 246.1 Talatan Solar Parks to power the country photovoltaically, occupying a combined area of 103,000 square km, or around a quarter of the total corn area. That’s not even very efficient in terms of annual electrical generation per unit land area, and it’s a mere fraction of the land we waste on corn
Corn is used for many industrial raw materials, not just ethanol.
Also, corn has very low ROI for farmers even with “free equivalent land”. Corn futures prices have not risen anywhere close to 100% fertilizer cost increases this month. Solar has much higher profit/ROI potential than ethanol corn for the land owners, with far less work.
The only people calling ethanol “stupid” are internet bots driven by oil companies.
I invite you to educate yourself. Maybe start here
Or here