As I was reading a
paper by Asif and Muneer about energy supply this is quick comment on the feasibility of solar power. They studied China, India, Russia, UK and USA as these countries account for 45% of the world's population and 49% of the energy consumed. As discussed in the previous post, energy demand is going to increase dramatically.
Asif and Muneer's based their work on the scenario in which 50% of a country's energy consumption is produced by renewable sources. To power 50% of China a solar PV electricity farm (
see this article for summary of solar power) would need to be 61
km2, 0.005% of the Gobi Desert (where no-one lives and it isn't productive). Similarly, 26
km2 and 36
km2 PV farms for India and the US represent 0.01% and 0.014% of the Rajasthan and Baja deserts respectively. Again, no-one lives here, but the potential for electricity generation is huge.
Too often people post about renewable energy being an eye sore, there not being space for it, the land could be better used etc etc. I found this paper especially effective in illustrating the feasibility of solar power. And, it was published in 2007, solar power has got better since.
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| Nellis Solar Power Plant, Source |
Why is it then that more countries aren't switching to solar power as their prime energy source?
ReplyDeleteGood question, I've given a very positive outlook in this post. It's because of cost. The infrastructure is already in place to continue to use fossil fuels, making them currently cheaper than solar alternatives. Environmental externalities and social pressure against using fossil fuels will steadily increase, when this make us the difference in price then countries will start to switch.
DeleteThis switch is already happening in some countries, such as Germany, who have very strong 'Green' movements and the social pressure has forced the governments to make changes.