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Asa Boxer's avatar

"We seem incapable of imagining futures whereby the ‘developed’ nations serve as a warning for just how miserable the aftermath of industrialisation can become." - One would expect. The irony is astounding.

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RZB's avatar
Feb 24Edited

Well, I only just now happened to read this angry post about human energy supply.

First of all, lets stipulate "green energy" means useable energy derived from non-green house gas emissions.

Further let's stipulate that human development depends upon the available per capita energy.

Currently global capacity for generating electricity is about ~8,000 GW.

A square mile of solar panels can generate a peak capacity of 1 GW at a 20% capacity factor.

(Recall that a regular nuclear reactor is sized for 1GW and operates at 90% capacity factor.)

So basically one needs about 40,000 sq mile or about 200x200 miles of solar panels.

Energy storage can time shift solar production and recently developed power electronics and transmission technology can distribute from solar fields over long distances.

Solar panels are principally derived from sand which is plentiful.

The land area of the united states is ~3.5 million square miles and has ~533,000 square miles of desert

The Sahara Desert has ~3.5 million square miles and so on.

And then there are dual use areas

Although there are many current shortcomings in the current system and their distribution and equity, you don't necessarily have the right targets for criticism.

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