[siliconunit]

It would take about 115k square miles of normal solar panels to cover the world energy use (23000TW), this translates to about 340 miles side square of land, I'm sure we could split this to various solar efficient locations and just close the deal with all this hydrocarbons Et al. BS. And can be solar parabolic-through systems instead of PV, no efficiency loss and night thermal storage built in. But of course we'll never unite and forget about profit and petty arguments just for once...World mechanics are just broken.

[thehappypm]

I don't really think that's the right approach to solar. Centralized power generation makes for unbalanced power. If we put this in the Sahara, for example, who is in charge of the exports? Egypt? What about a big terrorist attack on it? Or a war, where the power lines are a prime target to cut Europe off from its energy?

Best to have decentralized grids. Every country and state having 100 solar farms is better than 1 fucking huge one.