If solar panels covered 1/4 of Utah, those alone would be able to power the entire United States. US consumption is very high, weighing in at 12,000 kWh per year per capita.
So even without reducing consumption at all, we have the technology right now to produce ample clean energy. This is the message. There is hope. #solarpunk #directaction #doyourpart
Sources:
https://ecotality.com/how-many-solar-panels-to-power-the-us/
13750000 acres = 21,484.4 sq mi
https://www.justintools.com/unit-conversion/area.php?k1=acres&k2=square-miles
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah 82,144 sq mi
A real-world case for PV is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouarzazate_Solar_Power_Station in Morocco which occupies 2500 hectares with nameplate power of 582 MW, which gives an actual nameplate capability of 23.28 W/m^2 which is ~400x less than the theoretical irradiation.
Another important factor is that the plant uses vast amounts of water - 1.7 million m3 per year or 4.6 liters per kWh - for cleaning the mirrors, which is 23x more than a coal plant.
@kravietz These should also address all of the critics of my post the other day suggesting that there was plenty of solar energy available in the US (relative to the amount of energy the US consumes).
The 143 country study does cover Japan, where there is a much higher population density.
There's also a paper titled "Grid integration studies showing 100% reliability of a 100% WWS in the U.S. and Worldwide" for those who claimed the grid can't handle it.
Jacobson is the opium of renewables :) Have a look at this table - do you see anything wrong about it from engineering point of view?
source: http://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/143WWSCountries.pdf
@kravietz No. What is it you see? That all the numbers in column E are based on the numbers from columns C and D?
No, just look at percentages in column E and absolute numbers in column F.
These numbers are completely unrealistic - it's like saying that we now have built a 828 m tall building (Burj Khalifa) so what's the problem to just add 1999 km and reach low Earth orbit.
The model also assumes "perfectly interconnected grid", so basically ignores the largest engineering challenge when building a grid based on RE, as it assumes electricity from Mexico will reach Alaska instantly and magically
@adam Oh and I know Jacobson very well, especially from his famous CO2 intensity calculations where he included "emissions from cities burning after a nuclear war" into nuclear power emissions 😂
@kravietz I couldn't find the JPL presentation that came up with similar numbers, but here's a study showing that wind, water and solar alone can power the USA along with 142 other countries, and that the transition can be complete by 2050 (80% by 2030).
http://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/WWS-50-USState-plans.html
Let us know if you find errors in their calculations.