Elon Musk - "You only need about 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels to power the USA" (HNNNGGG)

[John Wang]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk — whose company makes electric cars and has a new solar roof panel division — reminded more than 30 state governors at the National Governors Association meeting this weekend exactly how much real-estate is needed to make sure America can run totally on solar energy.

“If you wanted to power the entire United States with solar panels, it would take a fairly small corner of Nevada or Texas or Utah; you only need about 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels to power the entire United States,” Musk said during his keynote conversation on Saturday at the event in Rhode Island. “The batteries you need to store the energy, so you have 24/7 power, is 1 mile by 1 mile. One square-mile.”

It’s “a little square on the U.S. map, and then there’s a little pixel inside there, and that’s the size of the battery park that you need to support that. Real tiny.”

Currently, about 10 percent of energy in the U.S. is renewable.

1. Combine Rooftop Solar Panels and Utility-Sized Solar Plants

Musk sees the solar future for America as a combination of rooftop solar — the panels on a house in the suburbs — and utility-scale solar that can make up needs in other areas. Recently, Tesla confirmed it would build a massive solar-powered battery to help power-starved South Australia.

To find out the rest of his plan, click here, bunnies

 

[I Am Legion]

Bye bye Middle East. Hope the oil Barrons stashed their fortunes away.

 

[Adamant]

Seems feasible.

 

[MarloStanfield]

hes building one of these batteries in Australia to power a large portion of one of the states, hes putting his money where his mouth is, if it doesnt do what he claims its free

 

[MusclesMarinara]

He's on to some good ideas. but I'd like to know assumptions he's making in order to come up with the 100 square mile claim. Solar panels are far from 100% efficient. Nor do I know the power density the Sun impart upon the Earth.

Anyway, this guys is the Steve Jobs of solar. He seems to have figured out a packaging the consumer likes. Next format I'd like to see them work on is a cladding for our skyscrapers.

 

[Jesus X]

meh he is full of bs

 

[Offended]

Weird, if all those climate change leftists people just outfitted their properties with solar you'd be half way there already.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

I'm all for wealthy people financing dreams like this. An idea like this has transformative power.

 

[Adamant]

I say we should just put solar panels on the border wall.

 

[loyalyolayal]

Spoiler

 

[Mr Mojo Lane]

How many hundreds of miles of transmission lines do you need though?

 

[gspieler]

I'm for utilizing renewable energy, and sounds like a good idea on paper. I wonder how you would engineer these things to be resistant to acts of nature, though. Seems like a single natural disaster could have disastrous effects nationwide. Seems like it'd be more reasonable to spread out your energy sources, both geographically and in terms what you're using as your source of energy.

 

[ithinktheymad]

Weird, if all those climate change leftists people just outfitted their properties with solar you'd be half way there already.

Solar. Plug in car.

 

[John Wang]

How many hundreds of miles of transmission lines do you need though?

He said only about 34-36 miles.

 

[ithinktheymad]

I'm for utilizing renewable energy, and sounds like a good idea on paper. I wonder how you would engineer these things to be resistant to acts of nature, though. Seems like a single natural disaster could have disastrous effects nationwide. Seems like it'd be more reasonable to spread out your energy sources, both geographically and in terms what you're using as your source of energy.

With superconductivity and biofuels we won't have to stroke off the Saudis any longer though some seem to enjoy it. We have to fix our debt situation however and a lot of old money will hate it.

 

[John Wang]

With superconductivity and biofuels we won't have to stroke off the Saudis any longer though some seem to enjoy it. We have to fix our debt situation however and a lot of old money will hate it.

They should honestly just delete the debt and not pay any countries back, then hold this stance for a while until everyone stops being mad:

 

[Roca]

How many hundreds of miles of transmission lines do you need though?

I'm for utilizing renewable energy, and sounds like a good idea on paper. I wonder how you would engineer these things to be resistant to acts of nature, though. Seems like a single natural disaster could have disastrous effects nationwide. Seems like it'd be more reasonable to spread out your energy sources, both geographically and in terms what you're using as your source of energy.

I'm sure he was only using that figure that to illustrate the concept not as the intended design. Localizing your energy prodution into such a small area would inevitably lead to disaster, not to mention the energy losses from transmission.

I suspect the real answer lies in a large number of smaller solar farms spread across the country, supplemented with wind, hydro, tidal or geothermal and a number of nuclear plants to provide a solid baseline.

He said only about 34-36 miles.

 

[John Wang]

I'm sure he was only using that figure that to illustrate the concept not as the intended design. Localizing your energy prodution into such a small area would inevitably lead to disaster, not to mention the energy losses from transmission.

I suspect the real answer lies in a large number of smaller solar farms spread across the country, supplemented with wind, hydro, tidal or geothermal and a number of nuclear plants to provide a solid baseline.

Looks like we have a fossil fuel brah checking in to this thread.

 

[Roca]

Looks like we have a fossil fuel brah checking in to this thread.

Are you high?

 

[Mr Mojo Lane]

He said only about 34-36 miles.

??
Putting a bunch of solar panels in the Mojave desert would generate a whole shit ton of energy, probably enough to power Socal, Arizona and Las Vegas, but that would take a lot of transmission line to get it to those places.