Total area of solar panels needed to power world

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

https://boingboing.net/2014/06/12/the-t ... anels.html
Science!

[Yukaphile]

So glad I blocked ABS. He'll be along any minute bringing a giant rain cloud onto this discussion, no doubt because "then solar energy won't work in the rain!" SMH

[LittleRaven]

You're doing yourself a disservice, then. ABS is many things, but whatever you think of his ideology, his grasp of the engineering of power grids is fairly strong.

You'll find no bigger proponent of solar and renewable power than me, but I'm well aware that it will never be anything more than a partial energy solution, at least until we have fusion power, because while renewables are fantastic under the right circumstances, they have 2 critical problems:

• They are not consistent. Solar and wind are great when they're great, but sometimes it's dark and sometimes it's still. This is a big problem for a modern power grid, which for a lot of complicated reasons does NOT deal well with highly variable power loads. We might be able to fix this with a lot more complicated engineering, but it'll be a very slow and expensive process.
• We don't have good power storage methods. Lithium batteries are kind of our gold standard right now, and they suck. They're horrible for the environment, and horribly inefficient. There are some local, better methods, like pumping water up mountains and compressing air into old mines, but these don't scale well.

All this is further complicated by the fact that power transmission is not without cost. Generating a ton of power in the Sahara does dick all for us in the US, and transmitting power from the Sahara to here is not remotely viable given current technology.

We're working on a better world. We really are. But this stuff is hard.

[Yukaphile]

I blocked him for another reason. Though those in red states who have this superstitious caveman-like fear of solar energy, trying to sabotage panels for their stupid religious views (when did God or Christ say solar panels were bad?), or somehow thinking that it'll give them cancer, those people I utterly cannot stomach and the thought of them breeding is frightening.

[LittleRaven]

Texas is as red as it gets, and we lead the nation in renewable power. There's money to be made in renewable energy, and I've never met a conservative who doesn't love the green.

Actually, I haven't met too many liberals that hate money either.

[Yukaphile]

Yeah, but I have heard stories, admittedly they are a tiny handful of deluded whackjobs, but they do exist, who think that way. Thankfully, they are a minority.

[Admiral X]

I find solar to be more viable and less risky than wind power. We have plenty of sparsely inhabited desert that could house some of the more advanced plants, and if any businesses or individuals want to get in on it, simple units go nicely on roofs and the like.

Oh, and

youtu.be/aVYUPmjJ9bU

[G-Man]

So glad I blocked ABS. He'll be along any minute bringing a giant rain cloud onto this discussion, no doubt because "then solar energy won't work in the rain!" SMH

Blocking? How does that work on this forum? This is the first I've ever heard of it.

[TGLS]

Blocking? How does that work on this forum? This is the first I've ever heard of it.

Short version to minimize drift: Go to the user control panel (here), then click Friends & Foes, then click manage foes, then add the usernames you wish to block (separating by new line), then click submit. That users posts will no longer be displayed.

[Darth Wedgius]

Just to resolve ambiguity, the squares shown would provide for the world's electricity needs (as of 2005). To provide all energy needs would require an area about 5 times that.