User:Simfish/Solar Trillions

Solar Trillions is a book by Stanford University's Tony Seba (2009) that forecasts the future of solar energy.

The world currently uses 15 TW of energy. It takes ~15 TW more energy to reach the forecast of 30 TW of energy by 2040.

It only takes 1% of the total desert area in the US to produce all of the electricity needs in the US. With high-voltage DC power lines, only 3% of energy is lost per 1000 km of energy transport (Phoenix to NY is ~4000 km).

There is significantly more area needed for oil/gas drilling than is needed for solar panels.

Solar panels also scale well at all scales - from small to large scales.

Subsidies for solar energy are not a huge intellectual stretch - the U.S. already massively subsidized the development of coal/gas, the national highway system, and the Internet.

Spain (esp. Seville) already developed stretches of solar energy ==

[some of the book's facts may be from other sources and not unique to the book].

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random other non-notable facts/notes/thoughts:

Peter Thiel once said that our imaginations of what's possible have been really crippled. Reminding ourselves of what happened in the past can help us remember what's possible in the future (esp. for solar energy where we KNOW what the outcome is - it does not require any huge assumptions to know that solar energy with's today's technology is an INCREDIBLY possible thing and will have AMAZING outcomes)

San Francisco takes ~750 MW of electricity (much of it could be generated by geothermal plant north of the city).

Seville would need ~400 MW of electricity.

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is this book notable? http://cleantechies.com/2010/05/21/solar-trillions-author-clean-energy-key-to-wealth-building/

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/how-solar-and-evs-will-kill-the-last-of-the-industry-dinosaurs-86893