So now imagine what will happen in the next 20 yrs when advanced in solar panel efficiency reduce the overall need to for as many panels. We need to get on this, who's with me?
I've been on board with this for years. It's still a little expensive to start out with. I think solar power prices will come down in the next few years. Jay leno, for example has enough solar panels on his big ass garage to power that, his huge house and get a check from power company every month for the power he is putting back into the grid. Imagine getting paid for your power bill instead of paying it every month.
http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127 has the source. the assumptions they make for energy at the equator, transmission losses, etc are a joke. I read something like it would cost 500 trillion to build all these cells, not to mention to environmental impact on putting them there. you have to clearcut that land, you know. and the carbon emissions line at the top is a complete joke. how are these manufactured? oh right, in factories. and the current lifespan until notice power output is 20 years or so. then you have to replace them. all of them. how much waste is generated in the manufacture of these? what do we do with that? putting panels in the desert? any idea what sandstorms (effectively) sandblasting the panels 24/7 does to them? GENIUS what happens when you DON'T put the panels in these areas? how does the size requirement grow then? where are you going to store the power when it's dark? not to mention the map projection they use has areas near the equator heavily compressed and areas near the poles are stretched. build nuclear.
I like the idea of being off the grid as much as possible. Solar is the only viable way I can currently find since Uncle Scam won't let me build a mini reactor
also, as solar power is in its infancy, we have yet to find any environmental impact from harnessing it. Something for the greeny extremists to complain about. We only recently found that windmill power may generate the same dangerous electromagnetic fields that are associated with cancer and high power lines near houses. I'm leaning toward fission/fusion, geothermal, and i've seen some exciting things in tidal harnesses.