

How To Power The Entire Country With Renewable Energy - ph0rque
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2008/07/22/how-to-power-the-entire-country-with-renewable-energy-fun-with-maps-edition/

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pmjordan
Love the maps. Where is the author getting them from? Are they available for
other parts of the world?

And a little more on topic: when travelling through the south of Germany,
you'll find about 50% of larger buildings in the countryside have solar panels
on the roof. With the right incentives, you can spread this sort of thing
pretty quickly. (as far as I know, they get to feed unused electricity back
into the grid at the same price at which they draw from the grid; I suspect
the initial investment might be subsidised, too) Cross the border to Austria
and you see nothing of the sort.

~~~
pasbesoin
Have a look at the legends on the map images. E.g.

<http://www.nrel.gov/gis/il_csp.html>

isn't found anymore, but this appears to be a current index for items from the
same source

<http://www.nrel.gov/gis/maps.html>

NREL == National Renewable Energy Laboratory

"The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation's primary
laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development
(R&D).

"NREL's mission and strategy are focused on advancing the U.S. Department of
Energy's and our nation's energy goals. The laboratory's scientists and
researchers support critical market objectives to accelerate research from
scientific innovations to market-viable alternative energy solutions..."

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ajdecon
It would certainly be nice to be able to hit the 10-year goal, but I think
it's going to take longer than that. The thing I wonder about is how hard it
will be to scale up the manufacturing of the required components of such a
system: PV cells, wind turbines, etc. I can't find any good numbers right now,
but iirc a lot of the factories and material suppliers are oversubscribed as
it is, with multiple-year waiting lists for parts like high-quality solar
panels. Building more factories is of course possible, but will take a fair
amount of time considering the processes necessary to produce components of
the required quality.

~~~
dabeeeenster
The problem is that solar panels generally contain fairly rare elements. If
everyone in the Western World decided overnight to put solar panels on their
roofs, we'd run out of those elements very quickly. It simply isn't possible
with the current technology AFAIK.

Wind Turbines are a different matter; they are relative simple machines from a
commodities point of view.

~~~
dabeeeenster
Having said that Nano Solar are quite interesting - not sure if they are
reliant on obscure materials but they are a fascinating company - huge levels
of investment in them too...

<http://www.nanosolar.com/>

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jws
It looks like Illinois bribed someone to inflate their wind numbers.

(For those outside the US, it is the suspiciously yellow state below the
flacid red lake and is well known for corruption in government.)

Interesting rule of thumb: The solar power delivered to a typical house's roof
is about equal to the electrical demands of that house even at 20% or so
conversion efficiency. (Rule breaks in the dark and cold of winter if you try
to heat with it.)

~~~
ph0rque
_Interesting rule of thumb: The solar power delivered to a typical house's
roof is about equal to the electrical demands of that house even at 20% or so
conversion efficiency. (Rule breaks in the dark and cold of winter if you try
to heat with it.)_

Nice... combine that with solar passive design, and you become a net producer
of energy.

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meterplech
the author speaks of this like if we dont send the money to the middle east we
can immediately use it on renewable resources. but, economically there is a
reason for the money to be going there, and that's because it is cheaper to
use oil. until research can make renewable fuel cheaper (or oil runs out), it
will not be economically viable regardless of whether or not the resources and
tech exists.

~~~
dabeeeenster
It's not a case of when oil runs out, but when it _starts_ running out. As
that happens the price goes up, and things like cars and aeroplanes get more
expensive to run.

It's currently a lot cheaper to run an electric car from the domestic
electricty supply than it is filling it with petrol, and has been for some
time.

~~~
kingnothing
What country are you in?

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ja27
Where's the tidal flow / Gulf Stream power?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream#Possible_renewable_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream#Possible_renewable_power_source)

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tptacek
And so if you could just plug your TV into the sun, the wind, or a compost
heap, all our problems would be solved.

~~~
ph0rque
... as opposed to now, when you have to plug it into a lump of coal, some
radioactive stuff, or some natural gas
[http://www.theoildrum.com/files/US%20Electric%20Generation%2...](http://www.theoildrum.com/files/US%20Electric%20Generation%20by%20Source.png)
?

~~~
tptacek
Actually, I plug my TV into the wall. Which is my point. That we get a lot of
sun, wind, and poop is kind of besides the point, isn't it?

~~~
ph0rque
Not sure I'm following you... the article talks about how the US can switch to
wind and solar energy (as well as biofuel for the lulls on non-windy, cloudy
days) and meet 100% of our energy demands that way. So yes, the author is
advocating solving our problems with sun and wind instead of coal, natural
gas, and radioactive material.

If done right, this will be rather transparent to you, the end user[1], it
will reduce our dependence on non-renewable fuels, and create jobs in the
process. You will still be able to plug in your TV to the wall and have it
work.

1\. Except perhaps for the price...

