Industy can't be run on solar, but houses sure can.
I think it's more like 900 W at the earths surface. At 50% conversion, for
a 30' x 40' house, that's about 250 Amp service!!
Yeah, weather dependent, but dats why God invented batteries and, more
recently, inverters.
Clearly will need backup, but the sun provides incredible juice.
You can do the math and show that a relatively narrow belt of solar cells
around the globe could supply several times the whole world's supply of
juice.
A strip of solar panels 1 meter wide encircling the equator would provide
about 6 million KW. A strip 1 mile wide would yield 10 billion KW. etc.
At any given time.
More or less.
--
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Mr. P.V.'d (formerly Droll Troll), Yonkers, NY

Stop Corruption in Congress & Send the Ultimate Message:
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Ending Corruption in Congress is the *Single Best Way*
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entropic3.14decay at optonline2.718 dot net; remove pi and e to reply--ie,
all d'numbuhs

"HeyBub" wrote in message
...

"---MIKE---" wrote in message
...
During the congressional debates there was a lot of talk about
alternative energy sources. They discussed wind power and roof mounted
solar panels. Where I live, the roof is covered with a foot (or more)
of snow during most of the winter. Solar panels would be useless.


First, we can't run this country (or much of anything) off of sunbeams.
There are 745 watts/sq meter of solar energy that falls on the earth's
surface. At noon. At the equator. With no clouds. The only way to increase
that number is to move the orbit of the earth closer to the sun.

Assuming 50% conversion efficiency, it would take a solar collector the
size of the Los Angeles basin (about 1200 sq miles) to provide electricity
just for California. Then, too, there is the initial cost and on-going
maintenance. Plus Angelinos would be living in the dark.

That said, solar collectors for modest projects - such as water heating -
MAY be cost effective. Solar water heaters are cheap and easy to
construct. Their only drawback is a 55-gallon drum sitting atop your
house.