Solutions: Electric Transmission Right of Ways

So lovely.  And there is at least 30,000 miles of these in the USA alone.

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Lets do some math.
30,000 miles of electric towers.   One tower every 500 feet maybe?
While we convert to the new smart grid why not get really smart.

Thats on the order of 300,000 or more towers.  So why not make the towers where ever the wind blows into wind turbine towers over the lines?  Hey if 25% of them are in good spots that is 75,000 wind turbines.   If these were modest 1 megawatt turbines they would generate   75,000 megawatts, or enough electricity to power up 75 million homes.  Potentially replacing fifteen Five Gigawatt nuclear plants.  Of course wind turbines can now be built up to 5 megawatt capacity meaning potentially with 75,000 turbines spread geographically all over the country a lot of them would be spinning and producing electricity at any given time.  

While we are at it why not also have a wall of Photovoltaice down the right of way wherever the sun shines nicely, a wall that would be about four or five panels high running for 30,000 miles, now that is one hell of a lot of electricity on top of 75,000 wind turbines, and how nice the utility lines run right to where the electricity is needed.  What are we stupid???  10,560 Pv  panels per mile, lets say we can use 10,000 miles of utility right of way, that is 105 million solar panels at perhaps 500 watts per panel???   We are talking like replacing ten 5 gigawatt nuke plants at this rate.  And the biggest hazard of this scheme? We would have a lot of photovoltaic panels to recycle into new panels in about 25 years.

Now most of those utility line right of ways are 200-300 foot wide swaths cut right through just about everything. Perhaps 3/4 of the distance is over low density rural and out of city lands so why not take stretches of the right of way and grade it out nicely and grow corn or switch grass on that and harvest it to make bio fuels?  How many acres in 22,500 mile strip of land an acre wide???   About 600,000 acres, now that is a lot of biofuel. 

The electric transmission utility right of ways are already ugly smears on the landscape and it should not bother anyone much to add in the Photvoltaic wall and the turbines and to grow crops all along the corridor.