08-02-2008, 08:31 AM
Quote:That's a lot of infrastructure my friend. Add to that another huge amount of energy needed for transportation and industry. I'm not saying solar won't help. I'm saying it is too dilute to be the magic bullet that will solve our energy problems. Hoping that endless investment into technology can undo the laws of physics (solar constant) is not the answer either.
I agree with you that only solar will be enough, and further I have to believe the amounts you are mentioning, but I am not so negative. Highly likely everybody who loves in a house (so not apartment building) will have his whole roof decorated with cheap plastic solar panels in x years. Calculation on efficiency are always done using an average lightness during a day (so not calculated for the Sahara). Add a few small wind mills (the 50 cm diameter kinds), and energy saving, and we will for sure be able to be self sufficient (I mean connect the whole thing to a back up generator or batteries or simply use a switch to connect and disconnect to the main electricity grid. Solar power panels can also be combined with sun boilers, so that they can also use the heat from the sun directly.
I my street they are, as we speak, installing geothermal heating for our water...pretty neat (Sweden wants to be the first carbon neutral nation, whatever that may mean).
That solar power might also help a lot for cars we can see when looking at the solar power challenge that they have in Australia every year. Those cars drive 3000 miles with an average of over 80 km per hour. Of course they are not cars in which you sit comfortably but nevertheless quite impressive.