
Surface Area Required to Power the World with Solar - ph0rque
http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/AreaRequired1000.jpg
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hughprime
Missing from this: any mention of cost, so out of interest I went and figured
it out.

Assuming a cost of $200 per square metre, carpeting the 336,000 odd square km
required for 2008's energy usage would cost... 67 trillion dollars. Factor in
a bunch more for transmission and storage.

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jamesk2
Wouldn't the cost per square metre fall with efficiencies of scale alone?
While it might cost $200 per square metre in the beginning, the costs would
fall over time.

Non-standard parts installed by huge amounts of human labor vs. standardized
solar panel installations dropped on site a la prefab housing?

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TrevorJ
This is pretty interesting. I wonder if the projections take into account
increased efficiency of the panel technology over time?

