Power the U.S. With Solar Panels!

myself

Gold Member
Aug 11, 2021
578
221
143
Apparently at current technology, I will show you a picture of how many solar panels it would take to power the U.S. That is both day and night. (With the stored energy for nighttime) The square in yellow shows the total amount of area in solar panels it would take to do it. Argue with that you naysayers.

Solar to power the U.S..png
 
That is both day and night.

How do you store the power that people need when the sun isn't available?

Batteries? That's a LOT of batteries, particularly when you consider we may soon be at war with the country that has most of the materials required to make them.

Additionally, our entire power grid works on AC. Batteries only store DC. You lose considerable power when you convert from one to the other, and then back again because most of our devices ultimately work on DC.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Banned
  • #6
How do you store the power that people need when the sun isn't available?

Batteries? That's a LOT of batteries, particularly when you consider we may soon be at war with the country that has most of the materials required to make them.

Additionally, our entire power grid works on AC. Batteries only store DC. You lose considerable power when you convert from one to the other, and then back again because most of our devices ultimately work on DC.

Elon Musk said that in conjunction with rooftop solar panels, the area that would be needed would be smaller. And the batteries that would store excess energy for nighttime use would be about one mile square. Of course, transmitting power will cause some loss. But as for converting electricity from DC to AC, I would have to look it up. But with electricity being the way it is, right now I would doubt there is any energy loss in the conversion. Also, AC is pretty efficient. That's why Tesla went with it.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Banned
  • #8
I don't see a link.

Stored? Storage solutions can't possibly power for more than an hour.

You cannot run a power grid off solar.

I don't have a link. But if you're interested, just do what I did. I typed into my browser, "What area in solar panels would it take to power the U.S."
 
I don't see a link.

Stored? Storage solutions can't possibly power for more than an hour.

You cannot run a power grid off solar.
NO?

Ever heard of Follow the Sun?
The earth receives far more solar energy than we need or consume.
If the political will existed we could power the world on solar.
Ever read Ringworld? Heard of a Dyson's Sphere?
Imagine the choking at the Energy companies upon hearing all power would now be free.
 
NO?

Ever heard of Follow the Sun?
The earth receives far more solar energy than we need or consume.
If the political will existed we could power the world on solar.
Ever read Ringworld? Heard of a Dyson's Sphere?
Imagine the choking at the Energy companies upon hearing all power would now be free.

As soon as you figure out how to make scrith, let us know.
 
The author was overly generous, no capacity factor. With a generous capacity factor of 20%, it will require 5 areas this big. That is if we assume everyone is being honest which experience tells me, they are never honest.

Or the entire state of Nevada and half of New Mexico.

Can we give up two states in the south to power our nation. And that is just the solar panels, how large with the banks of batteries be?

So we lose two states and maybe all of oklahoma for battery storage.
 

How much will it cost when we destroy the world with human caused global warming. Also, I have mentioned here and there how much more cheaply workers in China can make things than we can here in the U.S. But I think that part of the reason they can do so as cheaply is that the government houses them. To whatever degree, feeds and cloths them. As well as educate them, etc. With that much of their living expenses being taken care of, it's no wonder that they can make things cheaper than us. So as far as solar panels here in the U.S. goes, it would basically cost as much as the government wanted to pay for them. If they depend on private capitalist industry to do the job, it will cost up the ass. And probably then some.
 
Elon Musk said that in conjunction with rooftop solar panels, the area that would be needed would be smaller. And the batteries that would store excess energy for nighttime use would be about one mile square. Of course, transmitting power will cause some loss. But as for converting electricity from DC to AC, I would have to look it up. But with electricity being the way it is, right now I would doubt there is any energy loss in the conversion. Also, AC is pretty efficient. That's why Tesla went with it.

AC IS very efficient, for power transmission. Which is why our power grid generates AC, not DC

Much less so for running anything digital (which is basically everything we have now from computers to lightbulbs.

Converting from DC power generation to an AC grid is about 80% efficient. But, then you have to convert your AC from the wall to DC for your appliances, another 80% efficiency.

As for battery farms, the largest battery farm on the planet, built by Tesla Inc, in Hornsdale, Australia, has only enough capacity for 70 MW running for 10 minutes and 30 MW with a 3-hour capacity.

30 MW is only enough to power 3,000 homes or considerably fewer industrial sites.

The cost of converting our entire grid to a solar / windand building enough battery capacity to store that power (assuming there is enough Lithium on the planet to do so) would destroy our economy.
 
The author was overly generous, no capacity factor. With a generous capacity factor of 20%, it will require 5 areas this big. That is if we assume everyone is being honest which experience tells me, they are never honest.

Or the entire state of Nevada and half of New Mexico.

Can we give up two states in the south to power our nation. And that is just the solar panels, how large with the banks of batteries be?

So we lose two states and maybe all of oklahoma for battery storage.

You posted the link to the website. Read it.
 
Here in Florida FPL has solar panels at their transfer stations. It is a viable technology. Some of the large ranches use it to run their irrigation pumps.

For local uses, it's a very viable technology to AUGMENT a power grid or for non-essential demands. Solar and wind are very useful when the sun and the wind are obliging us ... they turn into very expensive door stops when the wind and the sun aren't available.
 

New Topics

Forum List

Back
Top