Date:         Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:16:19 -0500
Reply-To:     Joy Hecht <hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joy Hecht <hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Anybody burning WVO in Illinois?-  not really a rant
In-Reply-To:  <45F23A00.7000807@charter.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

:::
:::I saw recently some drawings and calculations for solar collectors to
:::cover a 10 mile by 10 mile square area in Nevada. The calculations
:::showed that the 100 square mile grid would supply all the power required
:::for the electrical demand of the entire United States on a daily basis.
:::Won't happen. To many little empires and kingdoms would be impacted.
:::Lots of resistance to the idea.
:::

Actually the problem there might be actual resistance - generating that much
power in Nevada, an awful lot of it would get lost in transmission to the
rest of the country.  Unfortunately the places that are best for solar power
are also the least settled - the same factors leading to both!  Maybe they
could supply northern California from Nevada, but not the east coast or
Alaska, I don't think.

Solar is also really expensive relative to fossil fuels. If we were serious
about preventing GHG emissions, the price of fossil fuel would go way up and
solar might be more competitive, though.

Wind is interesting too - and it's an option in more parts of the country.



Joy