Solar on Biofuel Land Powers EVs

Updated: 2026.01.12 17D ago 1 sources
A data‑driven policy proposition: the global area currently used for liquid biofuel crops could, if converted to photovoltaic arrays, generate enough electricity to power the world’s road vehicles (cars and trucks). The article quantifies land, solar yield and transport energy demand to show this is a material, not rhetorical, land‑use trade‑off. — This reframes transport decarbonisation and land‑use policy by turning biofuel production into an explicit opportunity cost calculation that affects food security, energy strategy, and climate targets.

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Putting solar panels on land used for biofuels would produce enough electricity for all cars and trucks to go electric
Pablo Rosado 2026.01.12 100% relevant
Our World in Data’s calculation of biofuel cropland area and the projected electricity yield if covered by solar panels (authors Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado, Jan 12 2026).
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