Posted on 07/29/2012 2:30:49 AM PDT by Rocky
The agency has already approved 17 large-scale solar energy projects on public lands that are expected to produce nearly 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 1.8 million homes. The department estimated the resource potential of the newly identified development zones at 23,700 megawatts, enough to power seven million homes, by 2030.
Wow! 23,700 megawatts! That’s a lot of megawatts! Right?
No. It’s not…
If all 285,000 acres were covered with solar PV arrays, the “Hot Spots” could have a generating capacity of about 40,000 MW at a cost of about $252 billion.If the same 285,000 acres were covered with natural gas-fired power stations, the “Hot Spots” could have a generating capacity of about 1.8 million MW (1.8 Terawatts) at a cost of about $1.5 trillion.
To put this in a little better perspective…
US electric utilities added an average of 22,734 MW of generating capacity per year from 2001-2010. If the “Hot Spots” acreage was devoted to that annual capacity growth…
Solar PV would consume all 285,000 acres in 21 months at a cost of $143 billion per year.
It would take 80 years for natural gas-fired plants to cover the 285,000 acres at a cost of $19 billion per year.
If every acre of the newly designated Federal land was developed for solar power, it would cover less than two years of the average annual incremental growth in US generating capacity.
(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
Obama Administration Releases Roadmap for Solar Energy Development on Public Lands
Sorry. The link to the Dept of the Interior page was messed up. Try this:
Government Stuck on Stupid!
Anything built on an Obama roadmap is a sure way to get lost. Period, end of story. The fact that government agencies are forced to use the roadmap is prohibitively expensive, but that doesn’t mean jack, unless the Congress is willing to do it’s job and cut off the funding before agencies start down the path.
Left in the incapable hands of a divided Congress, we are doomed, unless...
But won’t open up fed land for gas, oil drilling and exploration that would lead to energy independence and not just light up a few homes when the sun is out.
Thanks for pointing that out. Some of the comments under the article are pretty interesting.
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