Re: Because I know this is a popular topic

In article <gihb8l$clo$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) <seawasp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Gene wrote:
Quadibloc <jsavard@xxxxxxxxx> rote in news:58e84495-ad89-4ecd-abbf-
82a9bf55bb2b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

We have kids and they have done nothing about colonizing the asteroids.
Moreover, if the sunlight which falls on the state of Nevada can't help
with
our energy proiblem, how do you expect the asteroids are going to help?
1) Except for the odd eclipse, sunlight in space has unvarying
reliabilty.

Pretty much true of most of Nevada, and it's here, where we can actually use
it. The sunlight in the asteroid belt is reliably weaker than on Earth, and
useless to us anyway.


I'd think an orbital solar collector would be a better idea.

The problem with Nevada is that you'd pretty much have to pave all of
it over with solar cells to supply the USA or a large chunk of it.

The US uses, what, 4 terawatts? Which is 3.5x10^13 kWhrs or
about 10^11 kWhrs per day, a hideous unit I use only because this
map

http://www.nrel.gov/gis/images/us_csp_august_may2004.jpg

uses it.

10^11/9 ~ 1.1x10^10 m^2 or a patch 100 km on an edge. Toss in a
factor of two for seasons and three for efficiency and we're still
talking only a patch less than 250 km on an edge.

James Bay generates 16 GW and covers ~14,500 square kilometers of
otherwise useless wasteland. If it had to generate 4 TW (and it was
possible jsut to scale it up, which it isn't) it would cover about
3,625,000 km^2, roughly equivilent to sixty times the area of getting
the same 4T from Nevada (but then, hydroelectric power is just a very
inefficient form of solar).





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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Because I know this is a popular topic
    ... if the sunlight which falls on the state of Nevada can't help ... Pretty much true of most of Nevada, and it's here, where we can actually use it. ... The problem with Nevada is that you'd pretty much have to pave all of it over with solar cells to supply the USA or a large chunk of it. ... People already complain about a couple bloody acres of land for a wind farm or having a nuclear plant within a few miles; you think anyone's going to let you cover a hundred square miles of desert with solar cells? ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Because I know this is a popular topic
    ... if the sunlight which falls on the state of Nevada can't help ... Pretty much true of most of Nevada, and it's here, where we can actually use it. ... The problem with Nevada is that you'd pretty much have to pave all of it over with solar cells to supply the USA or a large chunk of it. ... generating power for day and night?) ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Because I know this is a popular topic
    ... if the sunlight which falls on the state of Nevada can't help ... Pretty much true of most of Nevada, and it's here, where we can actually use it. ... the Nevada Test site. ... I realized then that the best use for the Nevada Test ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Because I know this is a popular topic
    ... if the sunlight which falls on the state of Nevada can't help ... it over with solar cells to supply the USA or a large chunk of it. ... about 10^11 kWhrs per day, a hideous unit I use only because this ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Nevada Solar One now online
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