<DrumBeat: January 7, 2009 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: January 8, 2009>

130 comments on Arizona Solar Power Project Calculations

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Consumer on January 7, 2009 - 2:02pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You are correct, that is for total energy. As an exercise, I went through the BP spreadsheet, and calculated fossil replacement for each fossil fuel:

Total Energy: 28,332 TWh = 46,446 SqM = 0.41 Arizonas

Oil: 11,316 TWh = 18,551 SqM = 0.16 Arizonas

Nat Gas: 7,152 TWh = 11,725 SqM = 0.10 Arizonas

Coal: 6,888 TWh = 11,292 SqM = 0.10 Arizonas

The next logical step is to calculate how much you would need to replace oil and nat gas to get to 2030, when the ELM says we'll be SOL:

That's about 18,000 TWh. Which means, that we would need to build 782 TWh per year, for 23 years. This essentially means, we would have to build one solar plant, 18% larger than the one described, every DAY for the next 23 years. Time to get out the shovels.

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thomas deplume on January 7, 2009 - 3:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

When looked at as a percentage of total land area of the USA the amount of area is 1/8th of one percent. Subtracting Alaska and figuring in the low insolation factors of some regions then around 1/2 of a percent of any region's surface area could provide all of our energy needs. That is 3.2 acres per sq mile leaving 636.8 acres for other uses.

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130 comments on Arizona Solar Power Project Calculations

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