May 11
5
Also I am told that they are more toxic than coal for the energy produced due to the materials used in production and the mining to manufacture them.
He also told me that it would take an area of 100 X 100 miles to produce all of USA’s electric needs.
Ten thousand square miles of solar PV panels would cost a lot.
But would the massive order bring the cost down to reasonable if the US committed to going solar?
And no, I do not think they would all be put in the same place, but on rooftops near their usage point.
Would such a massive manufacturing project deplete the reserves of some vital element or something?
What are they made of anyway?
Why do we not all have PV roofed garages and electric cars by now?
Probably not more toxic than coal. Mass produced toxic abatement might increase cost instead of reduce cost.
10,000 square miles may be correct for USA electricity needs in some future year. If we harvest an average of 100 watts per square meter = 100 megawatts per square kilometer = 1000 gigawatts for 10,000 square kilometers = about 2000 gigawatts from 10,000 square miles, but we may loose half of the energy getting it from the best solar locations to the customers. What is the present USA peak consumption of electricity?
Roof tops are not practical in most locations at the present cost of solar panels. A ten times price reduction at the solar panel factory, might make 30% of our electricity from roof tops practical. Generally, only the portion of the roof that faces South or SW is practical. New construction could have about 80% optimized roof, but the initial cost of the building would increase at least 5%, and some people would be unhappy with the appearance of the new buildings, as the roofs need to be steeper to capture enough energy in December. Optimizing for December would also make the solar farms perhaps twice as expensive. Having fossil fuel plants that rarely operated other than in December, would cost double or more.
The principle raw material is silica sand = unlimited even for a 1000 times increase in electric consumption. Possibly a shortage of hydrofluoric acid and some other process materials might occur, but substitutes could likely be found at slightly higher cost.
My yard is surrounded by tall trees which are removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, So my yard is impractical for both wind and solar, by a factor of about ten, in spite of Florida sunshine. Can someone tell details of making methane from tree leaves and twigs, that the city zoning people would approve? Neil
