[ag315]

Correct--while the sun sends an enormous amount of free energy our way, it's maddeningly diffuse and requires enormous investments of energy and materials to capture it in a usable and reliable form. The Wynn in Vegas has a 160 acre solar farm in some of the sunniest land in the country and it provides...almost enough energy to power a single large hotel.

None of this is to say that solar power is bad, just that we should have measured expectations.

[myshpa]

Just 254x254 km of solar panels should be enough for the whole world.

https://www.dlr.de/tt/Portaldata/41/Resources/dokumente/inst... - page 25

[bitxbitxbitcoin]

Especially if it were close enough to the sun to start making a cube!

[causi]

1,370 watts per square meter isn't what I'd call diffuse. We're just not good at harvesting it.

[ArnoVW]

A typical nuclear station genrates 1 Gw. You'd need 1000000 square meters (=1000 sq km) to generate the same thing.

Oh and we can only capture 20-30 % of the energy of the total light.

We're going to need solar power, and fossile fuel is madness. But to deny that solar power is not 'dense' seems irrational.

[ag315]

1370/sq km is at the atmospheric level. The amount that actually reaches the surface is significantly less.

[geysersam]

That must be a seriously energy hungry hotel!

160 acres are 1x1.6 kilometers. That should give about 150 MW during the day.

(Same as power consumption of 50 000 aircons.)