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Electricity from solar panels is not "limitless" in any meaningful sense of the word. Solar panels deliver a limited amount of power per area. They require a no

• walnutclosefarm 4y ago
  Of course solar power is not limitless. Finite insolation, and finite land mass = finite resource. But, you could generate the entirety of US energy usage from less than 100,000 square miles of solar panels, and quite possibly from less than 50,000 square miles, if you consider wind + solar. That's a lot of land, in one respect, but it's less than, e.g., the amount of land (circa 60,000 square miles) we currently use just to produce ethanol that accounts for less than 10% of just our energy use for small internal combustion engines. The challenge with solar/wind isn't limits on their production due to land, or even infrastructure, it's that they produce intermittently, and only produce electricity, and electricity is challenging to store for extended periods of time so you can match production to demand over time scales from hours to years.
• mixdup 4y ago
  It's limitless in that it's not outside the bounds of physics or economics if we really wanted to replace 100% of our energy with solar, night time/inclement weather storage notwithstanding There's nothing but a lack of willpower preventing us from being on 100% solar and wind It's limitless in that in a closed system not connected to the grid, it's not automatically a bad thing if you waste it. Waste some solar power, nothing happens. Waste some coal or oil and you either have a slick on the ground or a ton of new CO2 in the air