BP Solar turns profit

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Because it isn't true.

Which part, Mr. Expert?

[:) Smiley]

Data analysis time:

Data from US Dept of Energy: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/txt/ptb0812.html

Current US generating capacity: 720,000,000 kilowatts

100 square miles of desert = 2,790,000,000 square feet.

A solar panel system would have to produce 0.25 kw per square foot.
However, current solar panel technology is only capable of producing 10% of that. So it would take 1,000 square miles of panels. Then there's that whole issue of transmission, and what to do at night.

[Ted Striker]

DanS does the BP stand for British Petroleum? Just curious.

If so, nice to see them spreading out their future investment.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Actually British Petroleum is JUST BP now... ie, BP doesn't stand for anything now, where it used to stand for British Petro.

[Ted Striker]

Cool, thanks

[Riesstiu IV]

I thought it stood for butt plug.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Smiley
Data analysis time:

Data from US Dept of Energy: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/txt/ptb0812.html

Current US generating capacity: 720,000,000 kilowatts

100 square miles of desert = 2,790,000,000 square feet.

A solar panel system would have to produce 0.25 kw per square foot.
However, current solar panel technology is only capable of producing 10% of that. So it would take 1,000 square miles of panels. Then there's that whole issue of transmission, and what to do at night.

Thank you.

Now that I think about it, I seem to recall that the article stated 1,000sq miles, not 100sq miles. My bad, but the idea is still worth considering in an acedemic sense. Obviously, you wouldn't want to have all the solar panels in one spot as they'd be A) an easy target, B) prohibitively expensive to maintain, C) the EPA or whoever would never allow so much land in one place to be distrubed, and D) damn near impossible to transmit all that energy to the rest of the country (at least not until a microwave satellite system were deployed in orbit).

[Sikander]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Actually, PopSci had a figure a few years back that if 100 square miles of Nevadan desert near Las Vegas were covered in solar panels, it would provide for the electricity needs of the entire United States, so it is conceivable that doing that in Mali or elsewhere would be a boon for Africa.

Most electricity generated is lost in transmission, so concentrating electrical generation like this assures that an even larger percentage will be wasted. Improvements in transmission, storage, cost and generation efficiency are all needed before this becomes viable.

[Dinner]

I will have to do a hundred hail Marys after saying this but Bush actually might have come up with a good policy. His new energy proposal is to start pushing nuclear power big time and that is very good news for America. That cuts green house gas emmisions, it reduces oil imports, and it reduces the flow of cash to questionable regimes in the middle east.

I also like the idea of building new refineries on closed military bases. There hasn't been a new refinery built in the US since 1976 and there is a big shortage of refining capacity. Currently nimbies and eviromentalists move to block both refineries and nuclear power plant construction but clearly both are needed so we have to put them some place.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/27/bush.energy/index.html

[Az]

nuke plants

refineries

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Actually, PopSci had a figure a few years back that if 100 square miles of Nevadan desert near Las Vegas were covered in solar panels, it would provide for the electricity needs of the entire United States, so it is conceivable that doing that in Mali or elsewhere would be a boon for Africa.

I don't believe that at all. The energy output per area of the solar panels just isn't that hot. It requires much more area then you're talking about. HERE is an article which says that in one week last January the US had a nation wide electrical output of around 81,000 gigawatt hours. It also says that demand is up and production can barely keep up with demand thus since supply is so tight we can estimate demand as being about equal to 81,000 gigawatt-hours times 52 weeks in a year. That's a yearly demand of 4,212,000 gigawatt hours for the US which I shall round to 4.2 million gigawatt-hours.

I had a hard time finding the output per area of a solar power station but I did find one manufacturer who was offering to construct a $4 million solar power station which covered 3,400 sq meters and produces 2,500,000 kWh/yr. Doing some math results in each solar power station producing 2.5 gigawatts per year and 1,680,000 of these solar power plants needed to produce one year of the nation's energy needs. Since each plant needs 3.4 sq km that is an area of 5,712,000 sq km needed to make this output.

Converting metric to imperial units results in3,549,272 square miles of solar panels being needed which is about the size of the entire US ! We haven't even got into the nasty chemicals found in solar panels, there short life span (meaning they'd have to be replaced often), how they have to be cleaned regularly to keep output high, how output various with the weather, or transmition loses.

[DRoseDARs]

Sikander, Oerdin:
Read further down from that post...

[Spec]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
its cuz oil prices are so high. i hope to have a self sustaining home one day, with solar panels providing all electricity. (well that might depend where I live, in the winter it might get too cloudy)

How about the roof being covered with snow?

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Sikander, Oerdin:
Read further down from that post...

I had to edit it because my math was off. The area needed would be equal to the total land area of the US including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

[Spec]

Originally posted by Az
nuke plants

refineries

Nuke plants
Refineries
Hydro Plants
Windmills
Solar homes