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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gordon A. Langston who wrote (6798)	2/27/2001 4:58:34 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 82486

Solar remains a great option until the environmentalists discover that converting that amount of sunlight into energy to be used for other purposes interferes with the natural balance of light and heat, and may lead to certain plants or animals not having the energy they need to survive in their natural environment. Thank bye-bye solar.

To: Gordon A. Langston who wrote (6798)	2/27/2001 6:23:08 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 82486

I don't think anything other than market forces and economies will really move this issue. Artificial markets will possibly delay it. I think I saw an estimate of 100 sq. mi of Nevada desert as filling the U.S. needs I don't think that would be enough unless solar cells where 100% efficient and that's impossible and may not be enough for only 100 sq miles to work anyway.. I could not find solid data on a quick internet search but I think the US uses has hundreds of gigawatts of production capacity (and still we run in to situations like the current one in CA). Going by figures posted in this message base by a supporter of expanding solar power I figure we would need something like 10,000 sq km of solar cells to replace all the electric capacity of the US with enough margin for cloudy or otherwise non optimal days. Of course I am relying on uncertain figures and a few guesses but even if I am off by a factor of 10 and I toss out my doubling that I put in to cover for cloudy days, infrastructure and access that would mean we would need at least 500 sq km. I wish I had better data. Then I could make better estimates. Tim