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Originally Posted by Xist
Seven percent of what? Overall, averaged out? The issue is balancing currently sunny and currently windy places with those that are currently calm and currently dark.
Is it possible to build enough renewable energy to power the entire world? How much wire does it take to transmit enough electricity for North America over 3,000 miles to Europe and Asia (and back). How much wire to transmit from North America to South America and from Europe and Asia to South America? Is it possible to build a power wall for every home, business, government office, house of worship, and charity in the world?
What good are solar and power walls in the Arctic and Antarctic? Solar would be fine in the summer, days are long, but can power walls last throughout the winter? Can they generate enough electricity in the summer to store for the winter? Four million people live in the Arctic Circle.
If we manage to power the world with renewables and power walls, how will we replace them in twenty or thirty years?
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7% of generated capacity from a power plant is lost to resistance in the power lines of the grid.
Im' goin' from memory,but I believe that it was Harrison in the 1980s who claimed that the Atacama desert of Chile,received enough solar radiation such that at 10% conversion efficiency,the entire planet could be powered from this single source.
A global grid is just a bricks and mortar sort of thing.If it's important,it will happen.No resource constraints.For what we'll lose from not doing the 2025 CAFE standards we'll be losing 1,800,000,000,000/year in the US alone.You could probably pay for some cable with that.
We replace things now.How do we do it? Is there some structural mechanism in the marketplace which will fail us in the future?
I don't believe that Antarctica is inhabited,other than research teams.
Some indigenous populations in the Arctic Circle live entirely off reindeer.They don't use electricity at all.The Chukchi come to mind.Other peoples will be leaving,as their way of life is vanishing and wasn't important enough to Barbie and Ken,that they'd be willing to do anything for them while there was still time to act.There just people of color you know? Who cares?