Total U.S. Annual Potential Solar Electricity Generation

[Dashinka 24,717]

For all those advocating solar, here is some sobering information.  Simply put, we could cover the lower 48 states of the US with PV solar panels, and still not produce 50% (it is close) of the annual electricity usage.

 

https://eprinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/EPRINC-ChartOfTheWeek24-USSolarEnergyAvailability-Version1.pdf

[Mike E 11,742]

31 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

For all those advocating solar, here is some sobering information.  Simply put, we could cover the lower 48 states of the US with PV solar panels, and still not produce 50% (it is close) of the annual electricity usage.

 

https://eprinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/EPRINC-ChartOfTheWeek24-USSolarEnergyAvailability-Version1.pdf

50 percent? It is much bleaker than you wrote.
 

FTA: 
 

“3.8 to 6.9, with a national average of 5.08 Kwh/m2/day.”

 

call it 6 kWh / m^2 / day. 

 

“Current utility-scale solar panel efficiency is rated by NREL at 15.2% (15.2% of solar irradiance can be converted to electricity).”

 

Call it 20 percent. 

“• The 3,268 counties of the Lower 48 states are comprised of just over 3 million square miles (7.7 trillion sq. meters) of territory.”

So the lower 48 gets 

 

6 * 0.2 * 7.7 * 10^12 = 9.24 * 10^12 usable kwh of solar energy per year  per square meter. 

 

call it 10 kWh / m^2

 
“• Current average annual electricity production of the Lower 48 is almost 4 million thousand megawatt hours.”

 

that’s interesting but what matters is annual energy consumption.  
 

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/ Says the USA consumes 

 

98 quadrillion BTUs per year. Call it 100 * 10^15 BTUs.  100 BTUs is 0.03 kWh 

 

So 0.03 * 10^15 = 30 * 10^12 kWh. 

So based on this the ratio of consumption to potential production is 

3 to 1 if we are being generous about solar energy efficiency.   And even then if every square meter is gathering solar. That leaves no room for open space and more importantly crops that grow food.  
 

The unwritten yet obvious plan by SJWs is a massive die off. The die off will target white males first, white females second. At a population of 30 million, America could comfortably go all solar.  

Edited August 15, 2022 by Mike E

[Ban Hammer 13,474]

i guess we could use canada as a place to put all the needed batteries too...............

[Dashinka 24,717]

1 hour ago, Mike E said:

50 percent? It is much bleaker than you wrote.

 

FTA: 
 

“3.8 to 6.9, with a national average of 5.08 Kwh/m2/day.”

 

call it 6 kWh / m^2 / day. 

A bit on the generous side considering the large majority of the lower 48 is below 6.  Regardless I can go with that.

Quote

 

“Current utility-scale solar panel efficiency is rated by NREL at 15.2% (15.2% of solar irradiance can be converted to electricity).”

 

Call it 20 percent. 

“• The 3,268 counties of the Lower 48 states are comprised of just over 3 million square miles (7.7 trillion sq. meters) of territory.”

So the lower 48 gets 

 

6 * 0.2 * 7.7 * 10^12 = 9.24 * 10^12 usable kwh of solar energy per year  per square meter. 

 

Quote

 

call it 10 kWh / m^2

 
“• Current average annual electricity production of the Lower 48 is almost 4 million thousand megawatt hours.”

 

that’s interesting but what matters is annual energy consumption.  
 

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/ Says the USA consumes 

 

98 quadrillion BTUs per year. Call it 100 * 10^15 BTUs.  100 BTUs is 0.03 kWh 

 

So 0.03 * 10^15 = 30 * 10^12 kWh. 

So based on this the ratio of consumption to potential production is 

3 to 1 if we are being generous about solar energy efficiency.   And even then if every square meter is gathering solar. That leaves no room for open space and more importantly crops that grow food.  
 

The unwritten yet obvious plan by SJWs is a massive die off. The die off will target white males first, white females second. At a population of 30 million, America could comfortably go all solar.  

A very good point comparing it to consumption vs. production, but you forgot to convert days to years.  I get 3.4 x 10^15 kWh/yr.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Dashinka

[Mike E 11,742]

13 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

 

 

A very good point comparing it to consumption vs. production, but you forgot to convert days to years.  I get 3.4 x 10^15 kWh/yr.

 

 

🫢

 

So that changes things quite a bit.  
 

So let’s say conservatively 3 kWh per day per m^2 or 1000 kWh / year / m^2

 

And let’s say 10 percent efficiency, so 100 kWh / year / m^2

 

So that is 770  * 10^12 kWh / year in the lower 48.  
 

Nominally a 770/30 = 25 to one production to consumption ratio but it means 4 percent of surface area has to be covered in solar panels.  At a capital cost of $50 / m^2 of the panels alone that is 0.04 * 50 * 3 * 10^12 = 6 trillion dollars. 
 

Probably closer to 60 trillion dollars when considering labor, infrastructure, land acquisition etc. 

 

Doable perhaps.  But I still think the hidden agenda is a die off.  

[Dashinka 24,717]

Ok, went back and checked the math, and the OP link as well as a response were both a little off as far as I can tell.  The OP link uses the term a million thousand, which I believe is simply a billion (1x10^9).  So if we covered every sq. m of the lower 48 with solar panels, the production could be theoretically 2.9x10^15 kWh/yr or 2.9x10^12 MWh/yr.  From EIA, the consumption in the US is about 3.9x10^12 kWh/yr or 3.9x10^9 MWh/yr.

 

Doing the math backwards, we would have to cover 1.8x10^9 sq. m.

[Ban Hammer 13,474]

thread closed per op request