I'm going to forward this to the list because it tempers my skepticism some. My analysis was *way* pessimistic given this info... My apologies to Rosebud. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 15:59:09 -0400 From: Rosebud <dubesor@netzero.net> To: David Brodbeck <gull@gull.us> Subject: : Alternate fuel. My error - --.04 % of the land mass. These are not my nos., and I did misread - This amount of energy is estimated to supply (at today's use rate) one years supply of energy. This allows for the present efficiency level of solar cells. Sorry about the over sight and misinformation. Will now retire to become a recluse and try to compensate for the 851 mea culpa I have amassed :-) After all some of my data is more than 50 years old and the state of the art, surely has advanced. I've been retired since Feb 1st 1971 and have tried to keep abreast of this, my favorite passion. Thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow. Bud Yandell
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Brodbeck" <gull@gull.us> To: "Rosebud" <dubesor@NETZERO.NET> Cc: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2003 1:42 PM Subject: Re: Alternate fuel.
> On Sat, 21 Jun 2003, Rosebud wrote: > > > If .04 of the energy that strikes Planet Earth in one day were to be > > converted to usable energy, ie fuel cell and electricity, it would be enough > > to supply free energy to the world for over 30 days. > > Unfortunately, the best solar cells are only about 5% efficient, so even > leaving out the many, many inefficiencies involved in transporting the > power converting 0.04 (4%, I assume?) of the sunlight falling on the earth > to power would require covering 80% of it's surface with solar cells! > And that's not counting cloudy days... > > David Brodbeck, N8SRE > '82 Diesel Westfalia > '94 Honda Civic Si > > |
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