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How does this compare to what Elon Musk says about solar power? In this presentation he shows that a reasonable amount of area could power the entire US (if we
by mronge 11y ago
How does this compare to what Elon Musk says about solar power? In this presentation he shows that a reasonable amount of area could power the entire US (if we used roof tops etc for solar panels).
Is that not feasible?
https://youtu.be/yKORsrlN-2k?t=187 https://youtu.be/yKORsrlN-2k?t=187
- Gravityloss 11y agoUS has lots of sunny areas with little people, agriculture or wildlife, but UK doesn't. Many European countries are dense and cloudy. It can still help.
- nickhalfasleep 11y agoI'm surprised they don't invest in production just south in North Africa, it would be pretty trivial to lay cables across to Gibraltar. They would of course have to do it with a sense of economic fairness and fairly pay the countries in money and technology / education transfer.
- T-A 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec
- Gravityloss 11y agoIt's quite unstable politically. Spain might be a better bet. On the other hand, maybe one could just move people to Spain and avoid this whole electricity transportation mess.
- beefman 11y agoIt's not feasible, no. The "reasonable area" is on the order of all the concrete in the world. You have to duplicate civilization but with precision electronic devices instead of stone.[1] Musk is, unfortunately, not thinking outside his prejudices on the subject of energy systems. In all fairness, this is very common. Discourse on energy systems in our culture is closer to religion than engineering. [1] http://lumma.org/energy/EnergyLCA.html http://lumma.org/energy/EnergyLCA.html
- fleitz 11y agoNot if you live outside the sunbelt. Distribution of electricity is hardly free