As a follow up to a blog post I wrote many moons ago (that has got a lot of search traffic—thanks Google!) titled "Really, what's a Gigawatt" here's a post I just found over at Inhabitat.com that answer the question: Could the Entire World Really Run on Solar Power? Check out the infographic that goes along with it!
Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2014
Friday, April 22, 2011
Seriously: Municipal Solar Wifi
The two big ingredients:
1 - Fat Pipe at a reasonable price
1 - An energy grid that will pay back what you put in
Everything else already there. Bake at 98.6 °F until the Singularity.
I'm looking at you, Kansas City, Kansas.
1 - Fat Pipe at a reasonable price
1 - An energy grid that will pay back what you put in
Everything else already there. Bake at 98.6 °F until the Singularity.
I'm looking at you, Kansas City, Kansas.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Really, what's a gigawatt?
Today's post comes from CleanTechnica.
Well, it started there anyway.
The article in question made me realize I have no idea what a Gigawatt really is, other than one billion watts -- useful information with other recent news like China's plans and the other article today.
Working with past solid proof that most of my ideas are already "out there", I went searching for answers. Turns out the numbers really depend on who you ask, since a gigawatt could power 750,000 to 400,000 homes depending on who you ask.
Citing his own fallibility, I think Dick Plano on the U.S. Department of Energy BBS had the best answer:
So there ya go!
Well, it started there anyway.
The article in question made me realize I have no idea what a Gigawatt really is, other than one billion watts -- useful information with other recent news like China's plans and the other article today.
Working with past solid proof that most of my ideas are already "out there", I went searching for answers. Turns out the numbers really depend on who you ask, since a gigawatt could power 750,000 to 400,000 homes depending on who you ask.
Citing his own fallibility, I think Dick Plano on the U.S. Department of Energy BBS had the best answer:
I can give you some numbers from my experience. There are two of us (retired) with an outdoor hot tub, full-house air conditioning, 4 TV's, 2 computers, gas heat. We are probably fairly typical.
Our electrical bill says we use an average of 20 kW with a maximum of 31 kW (in December). So 1 kW would meet our average needs and perhaps 2 kW would meet our maximum loads. 1 kW per person is generally considered adequate.
320 gigaWatts = 320,000,000,000 W = 3.2 x 10E11 W = 3.2 x 10E8 kW would therefore power 1.6 x 10E8 homes. With two people per home, this amounts to 320 million people, somewhat more than the population of the United States.
Of course, in our society a large amount of electricity is used by public needs and by industry, so 320 GW would be inadequate for the country as a whole.
So there ya go!
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