Solar panel acreage to power the globe?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The little square D represents Germany, the big square, Welt the entire planet. It's total acreage needed of solar panels according to a graduate thesis from the Technical University of Braunschweig.
I don't know how accurate it is, but isn't it certainly worth finding out?
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/25/1309388/-Solar-Panel-Acreage-Needed-to-Power-the-Entire-Planet-158-mi-x-158-mi?detail=email

[ApostateLois]

Doesn't seem like much. We wouldn't need actual acreage, either, just solar panels on the tops of existing buildings and in road beds. There are millions of miles of highway collecting heat, which is totally wasted. It could be used to power homes, businesses, pretty much everything. Of course, the oil companies are not too happy about that prospect and are doing everything they can to discredit solar (and wind) power even as they scramble to cover up oil spills and justify the destruction of the environment through their mining activities.

[Hakurei Reimu]

The amount of sunlight falling on the earth is actually pretty damn huge compared to the amount of energy we use.

Don't put solar panels under roads, though, or any other surface meant to bear loads. They're fragile, and any transparent surface you dare put up top is going to be scratched up quickly and reduce efficiency. Put them over or by the side, and angle them. That gets the most efficient use, and makes good engineering sense. (Ie, none of that solar freakin' roadway bullshit.)

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The study isn't saying to put it all in one place, just making it easy to visualize. In the US alone every bit of that space is readily available on freeway medians coast to coast, hundreds of thousands of available acres used to do nothing except give low tech jobs to people to cut grass. Some medians are a mile across and they stretch for miles upon miles sitting empty right along side of already developed infrastructure. I've always though hiway medians were the most wasted space on the planet, bar none.

[Hakurei Reimu]

Well, how would you use them?

[PickelledEggs]

Fill Death Valley with solar panels. Nothing can live in there anyway. It's just open desert. In fact, the shade can probably offer a more habitable area for life there.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Well, how would you use them?

Magical median fairies would transform them..
Want to be a tad more specific with the question?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Fill Death Valley with solar panels. Nothing can live in there anyway. It's just open desert. In fact, the shade can probably offer a more habitable area for life there.

can't do it. Death valley is a national park.

[PickelledEggs]

can't do it. Death valley is a national park.

Oh...  :/

Sent from your mom

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Dallas to LA is about 1300 miles.. Very few trees block the hiway medians and not a hell of a lot of rain. Figure if the average median is just 1 tenth of a mile X 1300.. That's a lot of acreage..

[GSOgymrat]

Solar Freakin' Roadways!

http://youtu.be/qlTA3rnpgzU

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Solar Freakin' Roadways!

http://youtu.be/qlTA3rnpgzU

Sounds like way to much maintenance cost, plus makes it harder to run from the cops at night..

[Johan]

The study isn't saying to put it all in one place, just making it easy to visualize. In the US alone every bit of that space is readily available on freeway medians coast to coast, hundreds of thousands of available acres used to do nothing except give low tech jobs to people to cut grass. Some medians are a mile across and they stretch for miles upon miles sitting empty right along side of already developed infrastructure. I've always though hiway medians were the most wasted space on the planet, bar none.

Won't work. You're forgetting about all the medians where the endangered red necked turtle frog once took a shit and is therefore protected land which can never be touched for anything ever again. And then of course you're also forgetting about all the assholes who want gobs of cheap power so they can run every appliance ever made but who will also complain about the 'eye pollution' because the solar panels prevent them from being able to see the weeds that used to grow on that spot.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Doesn't seem like much. We wouldn't need actual acreage, either, just solar panels on the tops of existing buildings and in road beds.

Put stripes of solar panel on buildings between the windows. Where the area gets enough sun this would be a easy way to get power without giving up any space.

The solar panels on the roof would be good for shading the building from the sun.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Ahh...the great eboli carrying. AIDS transmitting, blindness causing mosquito migration route might be disturbed and of course the natural unnatural beauty of medians might be to unsightly for blind people.