A first version is always going to be low in scale and problems will of course be found. The question isn't 'are there problems', of course there are, the question is 'are the benefits here worth more than the problems'. If you already have the land, a maintenance operation, a user of energy, etc etc then integrating solar into that system has a lot of strong benefits that can make the problems manageable. Start looking for the upside here and you may actually find the cost benefit equation balances out, especially if this scales out.
reply> A first version is always going to be low in scale
replyThey don’t have a first version of the hard part: The electrical transmission.
Maybe this isn’t obvious to people who haven’t worked on solar power systems, but you can put a couple panels anywhere and generate electricity for a couple years. It doesn’t prove that it’s viable to run thousands of kilometers of panels.
It’s like baking a tray of muffins in your kitchen and saying you proved that you can run an industrial scale muffin factory. They are different problem sets.
It could make sense along an electrified rail line, if the power lines used to supply the trains can be leveraged for distribution?
replyBut, putting panels between the rails seems foolhardy to me too.