All sorts of silly claims get made for solar. Most of the time they simply take the peak solar output, translate that to watts, multiply by 24 hours, and then show a tiny dot for the area needed to generate sufficient power.
Of course, you need to double the area to account for night time, and double it again to account for non-sunny days, downtime due to maintenance, etc. At best you can collect about 0.19 kw per square meter per day. The U.S. uses 333 GW (that's 33 million KW). so I get an area of about 370,000 square kilometers, which is about the size of Montana. Hey - let's roof over Montana! How much could that cost?
Don't believe me? Cover you house with solar cells. It'll cost you round $20 k, and you might be just able to generate enough to power your home, at least some of the time, if you are very careful. Of course, homes account for only a percentage of our total electrical usage. And you'll also never make back your investment.
Siemens sells solar cells, right? That would explain a few things...
Of course, you need to double the area to account for night time, and double it again to account for non-sunny days, downtime due to maintenance, etc. At best you can collect about 0.19 kw per square meter per day. The U.S. uses 333 GW (that's 33 million KW). so I get an area of about 370,000 square kilometers, which is about the size of Montana. Hey - let's roof over Montana! How much could that cost?
Don't believe me? Cover you house with solar cells. It'll cost you round $20 k, and you might be just able to generate enough to power your home, at least some of the time, if you are very careful. Of course, homes account for only a percentage of our total electrical usage. And you'll also never make back your investment.
Siemens sells solar cells, right? That would explain a few things...