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Old 03-25-2009, 01:38 PM   #27 (permalink)
jamesqf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian View Post
I do believe he said "the size of" Nevada, and not "cover the state".
OK, so you distribute your ecological destruction over all the dark red areas on that insolation map. Is that an improvement?

The basic problem with solar, and to some extent with wind is that it's just not very energy-dense, so you have to cover a lot of area to get industrial-sized amounts of power. It's fine on rooftops and so on, providing power to run your home & maybe charge your electric car. And solar thermal, for water heating and some space heating, is practical almost everywhere, but that's not sexy high-tech, so nobody outside of Mother Earth News talks about it.
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