Originally posted by Randy Stankey
View Post
It helps to visualize stuff. Below is the surface area we would need to cover with solar panels to power the ENTIRE WORLD with solar alone. Obviously, you would need more than that, since you cannot store those large amounts of energy. That's why a worldwide, coordinated effort would be required to pull something like this off. You would require a high-power world-wide, interconnected power-grid. While that may sound futuristic, it really isn't, on a technical level.
solar-panels-over-new-mexico-2048x1118.png
Maybe governments should mandate that below a certain latitude, where solar starts to become sufficiently effective, that all built-up surfaces need to be covered by solar by default.
Maybe we should tell governments they should put their money into bolstering the electric grids and make sure the stuff is future-proof..
Maybe those countries that have an abundance of sun, but a major lack of population should start to attract big-time investors to build the kind of solar farms that power the world if it's dark on the other side of the planet.
As for nuclear: France has shown us that it's clearly possible to run your entire country on nuclear power. They'll be the first that will actually conform to the Paris climate accords. The Russians have shown us that breeder reactors can be simple and reliable With breeder reactors into the mix, we could run the world for a 1000 years or so with the CURRENT supply of uranium...
As for more livable communities. This channel may be a bit of "self promotion", but I think some of the communities here could be a template for many urban communities around the world that were designed for cars rather than people and even around here, stuff could be done FAR FAR better in many aspects.
Comment