Term Test 1 Listening drill

Jul 03, 2026 15:10 · 8:31 · English · Whisper Turbo · 2 वक्ता:

एतत् लिखितं पत्रं आजम् समाप्तं भवति । अद्यतनीकरणं स्थायी भण्डारणार्थम् →

वार्तालेखः

0:00

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

This is a satellite image of the Mojave Desert in the U .S.

0:04

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

It's a fragile desert ecosystem,

0:07

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

dotted with wildflower fields and Joshua trees,

0:10

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

which are iconic in this region.

0:12

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

But over the past several years,

0:14

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

the landscape has started to change.

0:16

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

If you take a closer look in certain areas,

0:19

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

you start to see more and more of these patches of blue.

0:22

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

They're solar farms.

0:25

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And in this part of the US,

0:27

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

many environmental activists and local residents are not happy

0:31

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

about them.

0:32

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Joshua trees are torn down to make way for solar projects.

0:35

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Causing quite an uproar.

0:36

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Just piles and piles of Joshua trees.

0:39

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

It isn't just the trees.

0:40

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Solar farms in rural areas can take up valuable agricultural land and

0:44

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

disrupt diverse ecosystems.

0:46

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

But transitioning to more solar power and a more sustainable future

0:50

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

for the US requires a lot of land.

0:53

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

So what if we could find some of that land inside our

0:58

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

cities?

0:58

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

This

1:04

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

video is presented by Delta Airlines.

1:07

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

In 2021,

1:08

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

President Biden announced ambitious plans for the U .S.

1:11

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

to achieve net -zero greenhouse gas emissions economy -wide by no

1:15

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

later than 2050.

1:16

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Solar is a critical part of the plan.

1:19

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And over the past several years,

1:21

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

as the U .S.

1:21

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

has ramped up solar power generation,

1:23

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

the vast majority of solar arrays have been built in rural areas.

1:28

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

According to one study,

1:29

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

over half of utility -scale solar facilities were placed in deserts,

1:33

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

another third in croplands,

1:36

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

10 % in grasslands and forests,

1:38

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

and just 2 .5 % in urban areas.

1:40

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

That makes sense.

1:42

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Putting solar on undeveloped open spaces is often the cheapest and fastest

1:46

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

way to do it.

1:47

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

But there are some major problems with this path.

1:50

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Large -scale installations often mean bulldozing massive amounts

1:54

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

of land, altering plant and animal growth,

1:57

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

and migration patterns.

1:59

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Or locals don't want a solar farm to ruin natural views.

2:03

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Or they want to preserve farmland.

2:05

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

When you start to go bigger and bigger,

2:07

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

then it starts to become less comfortable for people.

2:09

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

That's Joshua Pierce.

2:11

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

He's been a photovoltaics researcher for two decades and is a professor

2:15

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

at the University of Western Ontario.

2:17

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And so we've seen...

2:19

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

progressively more and more resistance in the middle of the U .S.

2:23

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

to large -scale solar development.

2:24

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

That resistance has sometimes been funded by fossil fuel companies.

2:28

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

But people also have legitimate concerns.

2:32

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And across the country,

2:33

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

from Massachusetts to Ohio to California,

2:37

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

solar expansion has been stalled by protests.

2:40

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

One option that we're starting to see more of is agrovoltaics.

2:44

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

It's a way to build solar arrays that allow for agricultural use between

2:48

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

the panels to preserve some farmland for crops,

2:51

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

grazing, or native species.

2:53

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

But because the need for energy is mostly outside of rural areas,

2:57

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Any kind of rural solar still means building long -distance transmission lines

3:01

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

that can be expensive and an eyesore.

3:03

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

One thing that could help address some of these issues would be a kind of large,

3:07

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

open,

3:08

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

unused space closer to cities.

3:11

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Enter parking lots.

3:13

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

The U .S.

3:15

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

has a lot of them.

3:17

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Thanks to decades of designing cities around cars,

3:20

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

parking lots cover over 5 % of developed land.

3:23

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

These spaces could play one part in helping to fix solar's land problem

3:28

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

if we covered the lots in canopies of solar panels.

3:31

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

There is an awful lot of parking lot space in the United States that we can

3:35

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

take advantage of that's already essentially unused.

3:38

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

It's wasted space except for parking underneath it,

3:40

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

and it's not even used most of the time.

3:42

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

It's an idea that other parts of the world,

3:44

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

like France,

3:45

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

are embracing.

3:46

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

A 2023 policy in France will require that outdoor car parks

3:50

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

with more than 80 spaces cover at least half the surface area with

3:54

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

solar canopies.

3:55

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And officials estimate it could add 10 nuclear power plants worth

3:59

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

of solar panels.

4:00

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Importantly,

4:01

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

policy like this utilizes space that's already cleared land with

4:05

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

little biodiversity,

4:06

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

which is also close to consumers.

4:09

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And parking lot solar canopies could also provide shade to cars in hot

4:13

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

weather and cover from snow.

4:15

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

So why don't we see more parking lot canopies in the U .S.

4:19

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

too? Like canopies that could cover Disney World parking lots

4:23

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

instead of the solar farms they built on nearby land that used to be

4:27

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

orchards and forests.

4:28

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Or covering some of L .A.'s many parking lots instead

4:33

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

of overbuilding in the desert.

4:35

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Well, the biggest obstacle to putting solar on parking lots is

4:39

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

cost.

4:39

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

The cost of putting in a solar canopy is going to

4:43

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

be 50 % to even 100 % more than a conventional solar farm.

4:47

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

The thing that makes canopies more expensive than a conventional solar farm is

4:52

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

they're higher up off the ground.

4:53

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And so you need more structural material and you also need more weight at the bottom

4:57

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

holding them from blowing away.

4:58

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And so why would a company want to invest even more money to

5:02

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

put in a canopy?

5:03

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

There actually is an answer to that question.

5:06

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

In 2017,

5:07

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Pierce co -authored a study looking into the economic potential of

5:12

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

parking lot canopies and used Walmart super centers as a case

5:16

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

study.

5:16

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

The study found that in places with high solar flux or

5:20

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

more solar radiation in the area,

5:22

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

solar canopies could be incredibly profitable,

5:25

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

like here in Phoenix,

5:27

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Arizona.

5:28

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

But they also found that even in areas in the U .S.

5:31

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

considered to have less solar flux,

5:32

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

like here in Michigan,

5:34

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

selling solar back to the grid at going rates could still be

5:38

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

profitable enough to make solar canopies worth it in the long run.

5:41

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

It really goes down to how much are you paying for electricity

5:45

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

and how much solar flux do you have.

5:47

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And most of the U .S.,

5:49

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

barring northern Alaska,

5:50

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

actually has fairly good solar fluxes.

5:52

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

I grew up in western Pennsylvania,

5:54

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

which has some of the worst,

5:55

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

and systems are still economic there.

5:58

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

In another 2021 study,

6:00

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Pierce and his team found the total capacity across all U .S.

6:03

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Walmart supercenters would be 11 .1 gigawatts of solar

6:07

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

power.

6:08

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

That's around the high estimate of what the French parking lot program expects to

6:12

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

make. With that power,

6:13

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Walmart could power about 100 electric vehicle charging stations

6:18

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

at each Walmart location.

6:19

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Or if they combine the canobies with rooftop solar,

6:23

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

there would likely be more than enough to power the stores.

6:26

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

It would also create the opportunity to sell power back to utility companies on

6:30

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

the main grid.

6:30

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Or stores could be the anchor for a local microgrid in the community,

6:35

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

offering power to homes in the case of outages.

6:40

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

This isn't a one -size -fits -all solution,

6:42

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

but in good locations where companies can afford the upfront cost

6:46

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

of installation,

6:47

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Pierce's research shows canopies could be a worthwhile investment.

6:51

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

It's guaranteed under warranty to generally work for 25 years.

6:55

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

If it's an investment,

6:56

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

you're investing in a capital asset and it's providing you a return over its lifetime.

7:00

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

You should treat it the same way you would any other investment.

7:02

S… Speaker 2 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Only this one is actually good for the planet at the same time.

7:06

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

In some parts of the U .S.,

7:08

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

institutions like airports and universities are already trying

7:12

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

solar parking lots.

7:13

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Walmart and Target are just beginning to try them out in certain stores.

7:17

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

And policy is slowly catching up,

7:19

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

too, to make these kinds of solar projects easier.

7:22

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Like Maryland offering grants for solar canopies and a

7:27

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

New York City zoning proposal that would allow for solar on more than 8 ,500

7:31

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

acres of parking lots.

7:34

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Parking lots can't fix solar's land scarcity problem on their own.

7:38

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

The amount of solar production we need will likely require a combination of

7:42

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

efforts, including in rural areas.

7:44

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

Utility scale arrays,

7:46

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

canopies where we can put them,

7:48

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

arrays on rooftops,

7:49

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

and in other places like along highways,

7:51

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

over landfills,

7:53

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

or on degraded lands.

7:54

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

But solar canopies are part of a large toolbox that could

7:58

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

put a huge dent in our reliance on fossil fuels.

8:01

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

and point to a future where more cities are finding ways to

8:05

S… Speaker 1 (Term Test 1 Listening drill)

give new life to some of America's most overlooked spaces.

अस्मिन् ध्वनिमुद्रणे AI (आटोमेटिक स्पीच रिकग्निशन) द्वारा निर्मितः अस्ति । त्रुटिः वर्तते । अतः त्रुटिः वर्तते । अतः त्रुटिः वर्तते । AI नीतिः

❤️ STT.ai लभते? वदतु मित्रेभ्यः!

सारांशः

सम्पादयतु

ॐ ऐं ह्रीं

यदा यदा कस्यापि विषये प्रश्नः भवति, तदा यन्त्रं तत्संबंधितं भागं सूचयति, तथा उत्तरं प्रदत्तं भवति ।

अन्यं लिखितम्