Quote:
Originally Posted by Radioheart
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrispedersen
Look up, for example, energy density per square meter in new hampshire - and you will find that voltaic cells will *never* be relevent in northern climes.
Which for example, is what field studies confirmed.
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Solar can be made quite relevant in Northern climates if corresponding investments are made to the transmission technology and the power grid.
I remember hearing something along the lines of a 50 mile by 50 mile patch of Nevada desert has the energy output with present photo-voltaic technology to power the entire country.
Of course, the Eisenhower era power grid couldn't transmit a fraction of that to anywhere relevant. Given some investment in both transmission technology and the power grid, its not so hard to imagine a solar farm in Nevada supplying power to the Pacific Northwest, for example. Washington State, hardly a candidate for solar installations, could realistically be powered entirely by solar energy. |
Thank you for beating me to it, I've been following the development of large scale PV technology applications for over a decade now.
Obviously, since daylight is only half the day (at equator, more or less otherwise depending on season), transmission is not exactly the primary hurdle. Consistency is. Which is simple to address, however, through the utilization of some of this energy to perform hydrolosis, and create liquid hydrogen. This can then be burned at night, and/or shipped to other locations for use off the grid, and for eventual vehicular use. The technology for all of that is a few years behind where I'd like it, but only because the funding has always dragged at a minimum.