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Satellite beams solar power down to Earth, in first-of-a-kind demonstration
- friend_and_foe 3y agoThis is the only way forward for solar IMO. The surface area of the earth's disc is ~24900.24 square miles. This is the area that receives light from the sun at any given time. That light is the energy that keeps all biomass alive on the planet. Every square inch we pave is a square inch that needs to be taken from the biosphere. The amount of energy we harvest from the surface is proportional to the amount of life we have to kill to take it's energy. The surface area of the sun is 4,705,298,577,489.68568 square miles. The sun puts out 188,965,993 times more energy than the earth gets, that just goes out into space. All the life on earth takes 1 part in 189 million of the suns output. If we want solar for the reasons stated, we have to take it from the rest. Otherwise we just trade one problem for another. The earth needs the light that hits it.