J. Clarke wrote:

"So what?"

If you push the global warming people for what to do about it, most
say "well start building solar".

If you actually check their numbers you find that we have to clean up
200 gigawatts worth of production every year for the next half
century.


Yep. The amount of solar radiation hitting the earth is about 3KW/sq meter.
At the equator. At noon. With no clouds.

Adjusting for latitude, clouds, pollution, twelve hours of darkness, and 50%
efficiency, California would need a solar collection farm the size of the
Los Angeles basin (1200 sq miles) for its daily needs of about 50GW. Imagine
the cost to build and maintain something 1200 square miles in extent!

The only way to improve on the above is to move the orbit of the earth
closer to the sun. Absent that, folks have to come to grips with the idea
that we can't run this country off of sunbeams.

It's not all bad, though. The citizens of Los Angeles would be living in the
shade.