496,805 square kilometers of solar panels would power the Earth

[Candlelight]

http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127

Article very technical so have taken the key point:

Dividing the global yearly demand by 400 kW/h per square meter (198,721,800,000,000 / 400) and we arrive at 496,804,500,000 square meters or 496,805 square kilometers (191,817 square miles) as the area required to power the world with solar panels. This is roughly equal to the area of Spain.

Let's do it! Bugger those oil companies!

 

[RoJoHen]

Sounds like a plan.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Maintinance, repair, personnel, and the constant growing demand, would be agaisnt such an idea. The area needed would jsut keep growing, and the cost would in the end be about the same as gas.


Now if every house is roof had solar panels, and each house was taught how to repair and maintain then instead of teaching then algebra they forget, or ancient Europe out of the ass, maybe we'd have something a little bit better. Not a solution by any means, but certainly better.

 

[Kolrad]

I think the tough part may be getting Spain to go along with it.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I wish we had solar panels. My sister has and her power bill is so much lower than mine.

But there is something else I wouldn't mind having. I was looking at a website that showed a washing machine that was powered by a bike. Not only does it provide energy but it keeps people fit as well.

 

[Brent]

I think Solar Panels should be built into every house by default to provide supplementary power, to ease the power grid. There can be a batteries used to store power to operate off the batteries when the demand is light, and then when the demand kicks up it goes to the grid or something. Obviously not every home will benefit the same, depending on location, access to sunlight and the weather. But it is a place to start at least, use the Sun when you can access it, should help in a lot of big cities at the very least that get a lot of sun light.

 

[Lindley]

Solar shingles. Why not?

 

[Vanyel]

I think the tough part may be getting Spain to go along with it.

 

[RoJoHen]

Maintinance, repair, personnel, and the constant growing demand, would be agaisnt such an idea. The area needed would jsut keep growing, and the cost would in the end be about the same as gas.

But it would at least give people jobs!

 

[tharpdevenport]

Maintinance, repair, personnel, and the constant growing demand, would be agaisnt such an idea. The area needed would jsut keep growing, and the cost would in the end be about the same as gas.

But it would at least give people jobs!

Technically, they got jobs working in the gas field. If anything, older generations will be fired and newer generations will be brought in to train, that way they can cut the higher wages of old folks and pay lower ages to the newbies.

 

[the Dagman]

Maintinance, repair, personnel, and the constant growing demand, would be agaisnt such an idea. The area needed would jsut keep growing, and the cost would in the end be about the same as gas.

I'd rather see the money we spend on energy going into domestic energy providers instead of going to purchase foreign oil from countries that wish harm and death on western civilized nations. We bolster our own economy, and we take away the main source of funding from those that hate us. Sounds like a win/win to me.

 

[RoJoHen]

Maintinance, repair, personnel, and the constant growing demand, would be agaisnt such an idea. The area needed would jsut keep growing, and the cost would in the end be about the same as gas.

But it would at least give people jobs!

Technically, they got jobs working in the gas field. If anything, older generations will be fired and newer generations will be brought in to train, that way they can cut the higher wages of old folks and pay lower ages to the newbies.

The current workers keep working in their field, while new people work getting the solar thing up and running. It's not like all the oil workers would suddenly become unemployed. This would take a really long time to implement.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Maintinance, repair, personnel, and the constant growing demand, would be agaisnt such an idea. The area needed would jsut keep growing, and the cost would in the end be about the same as gas.

I'd rather see the money we spend on energy going into domestic energy providers instead of going to purchase foreign oil from countries that wish harm and death on western civilized nations. We bolster our own economy, and we take away the main source of funding from those that hate us. Sounds like a win/win to me.

That's a very good point and one I agree with, but it'll never happen, plus I don't think the U.S. any logner has the resources and factories to handle the massive production and minning of of materials, so in the end will likely still be putting money in the assholes's pockets.


And solar energy isn't feasible for the country as a whole.

 

[Lindley]

I've thought for a long time now that there ought to be a way to "bake" solar collection capabilities into asphalt. Think of what all those miles of highway could be giving back in the energy department.

 

[RoJoHen]

I've thought for a long time now that there ought to be a way to "bake" solar collection capabilities into asphalt. Think of what all those miles of highway could be giving back in the energy department.

Fascinating. Instead of solar panels...solar paint? Solar blacktop?

 

[Lindley]

I want 10% of the profits if you invent it.

 

[RoJoHen]

I want 10% of the profits if you invent it.

Hell, I'll split the profits with every member of the board.

 

[Candlelight]

Hell, I'll split the profits with every member of the board.

[Homer Simpson]And I wanna let you![/Homer Simpson]

 

[Shatmandu]

http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127

Article very technical so have taken the key point:

... as the area required to power the world with solar panels. This is roughly equal to the area of Spain.

Let's do it! Bugger those oil companies!

And Spain, too. Cover those assholes.

Joe, new worlder

 

[All Seeing Eye]

The thing is that even though the area would be the size of Spain it couldn't be located in a single location like that because the power would diminish the further out it went down the power lines.
So I think it's more feasible to utilise what we have in certain parts of the world. For many areas solar power is a viable option but for somewhere like the UK it's not and offshore wind power is a much more effective and efficient method of green energy production.
In my opinion the whole of Europe could be powered by north sea wind power, add to that Spanish, Italian and Greek solar power and you've got a green powered Europe right there..