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Comment by trinovantes | Hacker News Reader

I'd say NIMBYism is also a big contributor. Renewable energy farms are rarely located near population centers and convincing rural people to sell their land to generate/transport energy to urban centers is a multiyear process with single holdouts stalling projects. The alternative of invoking eminent domain is also politically unattractive.

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I agree, and want to add that I feel that NIMBYism would decrease if the residents (as opposed to huge corporations) would earn the profits from those renewable energy farms. You think differently about a wind park at the horizon if you know that each rotation earns turn earns you money.

I have seen less NIMBY during the last 10 years in some areas, is this a general trend?

Farmers love wind farms on their land. Once the windmills are up they farm most of the land as before, and get a nice lease payment from the land they can't farm.

NIMBY is the town folks who have to look at them, but don't really get any benefit from them. A few farmers refuse to lease their land for wind turbines, but there are a lot more who have run the numbers and are trying to get someone to lease their land for wind turbines.

Most governments are converting coal to Methane gas ("Natural Gas"). Replacing one lobby with another.

Most governments are not deploying storage solutions that would allow continous energy supply irrespective of intermitent renewable energy generation.

Neither of the above has anything to do with NIMBYs and everything to do with spineless anemic Energy Policy.

Is it surprising that people who are looked down upon and kicked at every opportunity might not want to lower their quality of life so those who never miss a chance to broadcast their hate for rural folks can increase their standard of living even further? "Uneducated rednecks" in "flyover country" at least understand the concept of reaping what one sows.

Global warning doesn’t care about the aesthetics of your hiking trail. But, no, no, let’s catch it progress towards a sustainable planet on hold because some folks don’t like the look of solar farms.

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