Reply #40: Look at the numbers [View All]

I'm afraid it isn't this simple. The US alone consumed 3.6T KWh of electricity in 2003. If you assume a solar cell is very near 100% efficient and can convert 1m2 of sunlite into 1kw, and if you assume they can do this 12 hours per day all year, then you need 115,000 square miles of land to place solar cells. This is 1/4 the size of Alaska.

The assumptions above are EXTREMELY generous. Cars, for example, after years and years of thermal efficiency improvements, achieve overall efficiency of about 35%. Also, assuming 12 hours of incident sunlight per day EVERYDAY is very optimistic.

Very quickly it should be obvious that covering all of Alaska in solar cells with focusing mirrors and computer tracking won't even come close to meeting our electricity needs.

Oil isn't even factored into this. You'd still need just as much oil to keep cars running and to heat houses.

The problem is very serious. Folks, please study this on your own. Learn how to walk yourselve through the maths and make sure you understand the quantities of consumption. They are staggering. I am happy to help you evaluate alternate forms in your study. The longer we pretend to think that solar and wind can come close to meeting our needs, the longer we'll end up relying on oil.