Two square miles? How much power was being produced? That sounds like power to supply the grid, which is a horrible use for solar. The grid should be dependable power.
Our solar on our home produces 80% of the power we need in our all electric home, including charging our EV. And it's in Alabama (similar climate to Georgia, where the article is about). Solar shouldn't be forced onto anybody. But if anybody is interested (free market), it's do-able in our climate without using up tons of land. All of mine is on the roof.
But you won't get the kind of efficiency I get if it's done with a large solar farm for the grid. For one, the grid's needs are different from a home's needs and the grid's demand varies a lot more than a home's demand. Simply put: it's hard to engineer to meet a constantly shifting target. Then there's the bureaucratic layer with grid power always mucking things up like bureaucrats do.
“it’s hard to engineer to meet a constantly shifting target”
Utilities optimized power systems just for that. You had baseload plants running 24x7 that don’t change output much throughout the day. You had intermediate plants that could cycle up and down somewhat. And you had gas-fired combustion turbines that could start and stop quickly (as well as ramp up and down quickly) to meet rapidly changing load requirements.
All of that is being absolutely devastated by the “non-dispatchable” (i.e., that’s a nice way to say “uncontrollable”) power from wind and solar. Hence the NERC warnings that we are going to face shortages, intermittent power, extended outages, and disaster.
Two square miles== 1280 acres.