Massive Solar Power
Some solar skeptics like to point out the amount of mined materials it would take to build a massive solar power array would be "staggering", implying that it would be close to "impossible".
For skeptics anything other than what we have today is just impossible, completely utterly beyond all human comprehension level of impossible, even God would have trouble it is so impossible.
Yet, the impossible, becomes possible:
As I stated before the total surface area required to provide for all the energy needs of the U.S., using solar power, is approximately:
100,000 square miles at a 20% conversion efficiency,
39,000 square miles at 50% conversion efficiency,
28,000 square miles at 70% conversion efficiency (the maximum theoretical conversion efficiency for multi-junction solar panels is 87%)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rNDphXZugeXoz3Kt5iogpPPNv3gZftiNTTKQbo4gZM0/edit?usp=sharing
I used actual measured data of the amount of energy per square meter falling on the top of my residence here in Phoenix, AZ, collected in 2012.
As a caveat this doesn't take into account power demand fluctuations during the day, conversion efficiencies to convert the electrical power to other forms, etc. So let's say taking these into account requires 110,000 or say 50,000 square miles of solar power arrays.
Is this impossible? Is it just beyond all human comprehension and ability? Is there anything humans have built that could possibly compare?...... Yes, cities and highways.
If we add up the total surface area of the largest 150 cities in the U.S. and the total surface area of all highways in the U.S. we get approximately 40,410 square miles.
Square miles of roads in the U.S.: 17,947 (excluding road shoulders, driveways and parking lots):
(Look under "How much land is being used for roads in the U.S.?)
https://www.artba.org/about/faq/
Square miles of cities in the U.S.: 24,193
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_area
(I copied the list of cities to a text file, then imported the text file to Excel, then added all the number under the "Total Area (sq mi) column)
If we add the two we get 42140 square miles.
So it is possible for mere mortal humans to build and maintain structures thousands of square miles in size. Even God would be impressed.
The impossible,......it becomes possible,......when you believe.
For skeptics anything other than what we have today is just impossible, completely utterly beyond all human comprehension level of impossible, even God would have trouble it is so impossible.
Yet, the impossible, becomes possible:
As I stated before the total surface area required to provide for all the energy needs of the U.S., using solar power, is approximately:
100,000 square miles at a 20% conversion efficiency,
39,000 square miles at 50% conversion efficiency,
28,000 square miles at 70% conversion efficiency (the maximum theoretical conversion efficiency for multi-junction solar panels is 87%)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rNDphXZugeXoz3Kt5iogpPPNv3gZftiNTTKQbo4gZM0/edit?usp=sharing
I used actual measured data of the amount of energy per square meter falling on the top of my residence here in Phoenix, AZ, collected in 2012.
As a caveat this doesn't take into account power demand fluctuations during the day, conversion efficiencies to convert the electrical power to other forms, etc. So let's say taking these into account requires 110,000 or say 50,000 square miles of solar power arrays.
Is this impossible? Is it just beyond all human comprehension and ability? Is there anything humans have built that could possibly compare?...... Yes, cities and highways.
If we add up the total surface area of the largest 150 cities in the U.S. and the total surface area of all highways in the U.S. we get approximately 40,410 square miles.
Square miles of roads in the U.S.: 17,947 (excluding road shoulders, driveways and parking lots):
(Look under "How much land is being used for roads in the U.S.?)
https://www.artba.org/about/faq/
Square miles of cities in the U.S.: 24,193
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_area
(I copied the list of cities to a text file, then imported the text file to Excel, then added all the number under the "Total Area (sq mi) column)
If we add the two we get 42140 square miles.
So it is possible for mere mortal humans to build and maintain structures thousands of square miles in size. Even God would be impressed.
The impossible,......it becomes possible,......when you believe.
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