California and New Mexico among other locations are considering significant solar power plants to take advantage of their regular weather patterns of sun. It is fair game to inquire, then, on the overall effectiveness and practicality of solar power systems on the large scale. How much can solar power be used to provide for America’s energy base?
The proposed answer is simple. Pound for pound and dollar for dollar solar power stations can not create the output of a fossil fuel power station. The energy locked up in combustible fuels such as coal, natural gas, and diesel is enormous. As long as carbon based fuels can be obtained at inexpensive price points they will continue to keep the largest marketshare for many years to come.
Combustible fuels can be thought of concentrated and stored solar energy from millenia before and in that sense are not really a bad thing. Without combustion, we would be without many modern technological developments, and we could not support our industrial base.
Most of our comforts and commercial activities are founded on several industries. This foundation includes the mining of ores from the Earth, and the manufacturing of raw materials such as aluminum, iron, steel, copper, and more. It includes manufacturing plants for automobiles, airplanes, tools, machinery, advanced electronics, and just about every other gizmo we use on a regular basis. It also includes large machinery required for harvesting lumber and other agricultural products.
The reality is our regular daily lives are very electricity intensive. This energy consumption is rooted in the infrastructure that bolsters our economy and our existence and the reality is it is supported by energy generated through combustion.
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Here lies the basic problem with large solar power stations. They cannot supply enough energy to support America’s industrial base. This does not mean that they are undesirable or irrelevant. It means solar energy systems make the most sense in small commercial and residential applications where energy consumption is lower.
As an example, a 500 MegaWatt combustion power plant can fit in a relatively small space, less than a 1/4 square mile without much difficulty. When considering a photovoltaic solar power plant, nearly 1,140 acres (almost 2 square miles) of solar panels would have to be installed to equal this same capacity. This is 2 square miles of actual solar panels, and does not account for the mounting and maintenance space. Being that solar panels provide peak power only 5 to 7 hours per day, then apples to apples we’re only getting the total output with more than eight times the space!
In locations that make sense, we need to include solar power solutions as part of our energy portfolio. We must pay homage, however, to our modern combustion technologies. Modern combustion systems are cleaner and more efficient than ever before, and provide enormous amounts of power 24 hours a day. The energy density of fossil fuels is just to high to ignore when it comes to powering America’s industrial base.
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