How Much Land Would It Take to Supply the World's Electricity FROM Solar Cells?

[Demeter]

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1161481,00.jpg










The squares are in order of size, for the World, Europe, and Germany. Now since the earth rotates, this would have to be spread out along some latitude for 24 hour power availability, but it's far from impossible.


http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,PB64-SUQ9MzA5NDYmbnI9MTI_3,00.html


THERE, I FIXED THE HEADER. IT'S BEEN A ROUGH WEEK.

[mike_c]

1. that depends on how many solar cells the world's electricity desires....

Rimshot. I'll be here all week.

[nomorenomore08]

2. WOW. I never suspected it would be such a small area.

We've really dropped the ball on this one, haven't we? And all because of corporate greed...

[Terry in Austin]

7. Yeah, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it!

;-)

[stevietheman]

3. This could be a great export industry for Africa. n/

n/t

[angstlessk]

4. EVERY large continent would have their 'day in the sun' so to speak

even here in the ole USofA..oops we are not a continent..but don't tell the rest of America, okey dokey?

[NMDemDist2]

5. I read yesterday a 20 mile by 20 mile installation in Arizona would

be enough for the whole USA

[nomorenomore08]

8. Sounds about right, based on the graphic in the OP. And Arizona certainly has plenty of open space.

nt

[Doctor_J]

16. Yeah, and Sheriff whatshisname could have his inmates

do the install. When can we start?

[yellowcanine]

17. Putting them on every building would make more sense.

The goal should be to make every building self sufficient in energy as much as possible. Get rid of the grid. A combination ofr solar cells, roof top wind turbines, batteries and fuel cells for emergency back up could do the job. We pretty much have the technology. All that is lacking is the engineering and the will to do it.

[TheWraith]

18. Not even close. 200 miles by 200 miles would be more accurate.

A lot of solar power proponents throw around inaccurate numbers that deliberately confuse total solar energy with what's capturable via solar cells. To power the entire US, even assuming you could store that much energy for non-daylight hours, you'd need an area close to 50,000 square miles, or half of Nevada.

[Demeter]

6. The Thing to Remember Folks Is PV Gets Us Off the Grid

If we want to keep running big transmission lines across the continent and paying big bills to the electric companies, we could. But photo-voltaics offer us the chance to make our own power, just for our own home, or tiny neighborhood, and be free of capitalism in one very vital aspect of life.

[jwirr]

9. And it would give us freedom and independence. I suspect it will

end up being both. Wonder if that article allows for plug in cars?

[msongs]

10. solar on EVERY rooftop, NOT controlled by utility companies - that would be great....

we investigated solar last summer but sorry to say, even with rebates and credits, it was not cost effective even over 30 years, as best we could tell.

however with all these new solar films and new techonology maybe that will soon change unless the oil whores control the solar industry.

Msongs

[yurbud]

13. that's another reason energy companies don't like it--it can be decentralized and therefore

not monopolized.

[TheWraith]

19. I'm afraid the economy of it isn't linked to oil.

Solar is, per kilowatt, one of the most expensive forms of power on Earth. That has nothing to do with a conspiracy of oil companies, it's just the realities of building solar cells. It's always been that way, and unless somebody makes a breakthrough that can be brought out of the lab (unlike the "breakthroughs" touted in news articles and never seen again) it's going to remain so.

[catnhatnh]

11. Nice post ...

...I wonder about a couple of things.How much would shifting cars to either electric or electric hybrid affect the area needed? And once electric costs were stabilized would fossil fuel costs drive a large shift to electric heating?

[Stuckinthebush]

12. It sounds like a good business plan

buy a bunch of land in the desert for cheap and start installing these things. Then, sell the power to the people.

[Prophet 451]

14. Now THERE'S a business proposal!

And since sunlight is pretty much free, you could sell it cheap and still make a profit.

[Stuckinthebush]

15. Bingo

clearly, you'd want to regain your initial costs (which would be high), but then you could sell for very little and still make a nice profit.

Win-win!