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Actually the cost of the Iraq war is 2 trillion. I think that is 2e12 usd! And these days you can deploy utility solar for $1.5 a watt. For 2e12 USD you'd ge
by codecamper 10y ago
Actually the cost of the Iraq war is 2 trillion. I think that is 2e12 usd!
And these days you can deploy utility solar for $1.5 a watt.
For 2e12 USD you'd get 1.5e12 watts. That's 1500GW solar generation capacity.
Talk about a missed opportunity.
Wikipedia says the US uses about 5e9 MWh electricity per year.
How close is 1500GW solar generation from 5e9 MWh?
Anyone know? (realizing that we'd need batteries too at some point)
- 08-15 10y ago> How close is 1500GW solar generation from 5e9 MWh [per year]? Almost six orders of magnitude too low. 1GW nameplate capacity is about 100MW actual generation, so 1500GW[nameplate] x 8600h = 13GWh = 13000 MWh, comparable to 5e3MWh in round numbers. (This is such a t terrible result, I'm inclined to think you got your numbers wrong.)
- spqr0a1 10y ago13GWh is way off! 1500GW x 8600h x 0.1 capacity factor = 1,300,000GWh or 1.3e9MWh. Within an order of magnitude of US electricity demand.
- 08-15 10y agoOh dear, you're completely right. Beer and orders of magnitude don't seem to mix. :-/
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- codecamper 10y agoI was a little off with the 1.5e12 W. More like 1.333e12 W capacity or 1,333 GW capacity. googling a bit shows that solar capacity factor is between 13 & 30% Say 18% for a variety of geographies. 1333 GW x 8760 hours * 18% = 2,100,000 GWh 2.1 e6 GWh = 2.1e9 MWh 5e9 MWh is what the US uses now. Solar is still maybe 1.5 or 2x more expensive than wind. By combining wind and solar, with 2 trillion investment, you'd get most of the way towards a major greening of the grid. (of course batteries, etc will make it more expensive & EVs may double or more electric demand) So instead of that war & it's bloodshed, we could have gone a very long way towards solving the energy problems & uncertainty facing the US for decades and maybe even establish a system that could last us into perpetuity. Thanks for reading.
- lisivka 10y agoYep, it is quite possible to light graves of victims of terrorist attacks with solar energy. It is much much cheaper than a war.
- codecamper 10y agohuh?
- lisivka 10y agoI'm saying that instead of beginning a war to protect US citizens from terrorists attacks, US can just make something useful for a fraction of the cost, e.g. develop and install 100% ecofriendly light.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- codecamper 10y agoUmm. If you want to make an eco-friendly light for graves of terrorist victims, go right ahead. Good luck with that.
- lisivka 10y agoI'm short on money saved on war.