Comment Re:Wind is (Score 1) 262
> Could you not place solar panels underneath the windmills?
In theory yes. In practice the wind resource is highest in the Midwest, and certain mountain passes. Midwest combines wind and field crops, because the wind turbine only needs about 1% of the land area to install the tower and the access road. The turbine as a whole doesn't create too much shade, so crops grow just fine around it. Mountain passes have too much geography in the way, and are not ideal for collecting sunlight.
Solar is getting installed preferentially in dry areas of the Southwest, because you get more sunlight hours per year there, and on industrial/commercial and home rooftops, because it's easier to compete with retail electric rates. The big desert solar farms have to compete with wholesale utility plants. It's popping up in other places too, I saw some panels in a field in NW Georgia, but the ones I mention above account for most of the installations at present.