Climate Policy

[kandrathe]

Let me ignore most of your post as unsubstantiated argumentation. For example, how would you collect the solar energy that lands on the Pacific ocean? Placing PV cells in the Sahara sounds good, until you try to figure out how to keep them clean, and get the power to the where it is needed. As far as payback... The operative words are "can be", they also are frequently not. In my case the net savings over grid power is negative for the entire life of the panels. Show me a source for "germanium in amorphous silicon-germanium thin film solar cells", and let's compare the costs. Let me just conclude that I won't continue to engage in a battle of wits unless you prove you are armed.

No, I used that site because it steps through all the math (1 thru 7) I just outlined, although I substituted some of the US values for UK, and used the commercially available 20% for panel efficiency rather than his use of the lab available values of 30%. The math is this professors math, and not mine (although his values are similar to mine).

9041 Wh/day = 9041*60*60 Joule/day = 9041*60*60/24*60*60 Watt. If we divide that by 4, we get 9041/(24*4) = 94.2 Watt. Looking at your (wrong) number of 23 W/m2 for northern U.S. (winter), it would seem we need less then 4 m2 even there:)

For someone who claims to have a feel for math, you are pretty bad at it. Do you really believe you could run a home on a 94 Watt system? What is the Watt rating on your refrigerator?

It is not a mathematical derivation, just a "rule of thumb". Which is why I said, "The usual formula for figuring peak watts needed is to take Watt Hour per Day divided by 4." If you take WH per day / 4 you get an approximation for system peak watts.

Taken from this site. Which is pro-solar. Let's validate my calculations using someone else's calculator. Plug in, 55412, XCEL, 3300 kWh/month and 100% generation. Voila! Minimum system size: 3000 Watts. That is actually more than my calculation of 2260 Watts. And, they estimate (wrongly actually since only in the height of summer would I get anywhere near 4.77 kWh/m^2 per day, or 600 W/m2 peak sun which is double the value from Texas) I will need a roof area of 254 sq-ft or about 24 square meters. Which is most of it.