Quote:
Originally Posted by Kal
Those numbers look way off.
Looking at USA's electricity consumption and using bojans figures from earlier on in this thread, you can work out that 800 solar farms as calculated by bojan (the equivalent of 800 average nuclear reactors) would supply that amount of energy, which covers an area 40km x 40km (1600 km2). The size of Texas is 696,241 km2 |
That's given 100% optimum figures, as per Bojan's post (and then only around high noon...so +- 1hour/day). That's also dependent on the full 1370W/M^2 being available all the time with solar cells at 10-20% efficiency collecting the sunlight. It's also dependent on a reliable 24/7, 365 days/year supply and storage. Plus it's also dependent on how much electricity is being consumed, not on the generating capacity, which what we're talking about.
In any case 800 average nuke reactors (600MW generating capacity) is only 480GW of capacity....the US generates 1030GW annually (or 4100TWH), so your calculations are out by at least a factor of 2.5 or more. For an ideal situation.
But being beside the point, those figures weren't mine, they were from the DoE in the US. So if they stuffed up, that's their fault.