Paul Hutchinson wrote: > I found a pro-solar energy web site that claims: > "Covering 9% of Nevada with parabolic trough systems could generate enough > electrical power for the whole of the USA." > http://www.power-technology.com/projects/sanfrancisco/ See final paragraph. > > Nevada is a bit over 110,000 square miles in size. This would make it around > 10,000 square miles of land to power the US. > > Paul Hutch > > Nevada has less sunlight than So Arizona. But this size is huge, compared to what it really takes to do this. I think this is dramatically incorrect. But the verbiage is otherwise correct; the parabolic trough systems can concentrate the sunlight to the working medium almost ideally. Nevertheless, the problem isn't generating the energy...that's a piece of cake, really...the problem is moving the electricity to where it is needed, which cannot be done with the grid system we have now...and this fiscal crisis will take at least a decade to wash out, so I can't see anything happening to fix it in my lifetime... The advantage of Arizona is that the state is mostly Indian reservations, who would appreciate getting the chance to lease some of their useless land. Also, the Indian populations are all incredibly low- almost nobody lives there- even the tree huggers would have a tough time getting wound up over the idea, so it would bring welcome jobs... --Bob Axtell >> -----Original Message----- >> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu]On Behalf >> Of Bob Axtell >> Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 10:05 AM >> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. >> Subject: Re: [EE]: solar farm on 10 / 100 square miles >> >> >> Yep. >> >> Cedric Chang wrote: >> >>> So you are saying 10 miles square, which is 100 square miles ? >>> cc >>> >>> >>> >>>> On Mar 16, 2008, at 6:23 PM, Bob Axtell wrote: >>>> >>>> Cedric Chang wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>> Someone said they had a link to a proposal to use 10 or 100 square >>>>> miles of sunny desert land to make hydrogen and oxygen from water and >>>>> solar energy. Can anyone direct me to this proposed solar farm ? >>>>> >>>>> I want to run the numbers on acquiring land down south ( USA ) and >>>>> what the technology costs would be. >>>>> >>>>> cc >>>>> > > > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist