The Rush To Renewable Energy Defies Science, Economics, And Common Sense

Issues and Insights ^ | 09/24/2019 | Henry I. Miller and Andrew I. Fillat

[Robert A Cook PE]

When you subtract out night, weather, efficiency, angles, and other factors, your net solar harvest is about 10 watts per square meter.

No, no. It would be nice, but no.
The sun provides 1362 (yearly average) to the top of atmosphere (TOS) IF the receiver is perpendicular to the sun's rays.
In the northern summer, 1310 watts.m^2.
In the northern winter, the sun provides 1420 watts/m^2.

At sea level, on an average day BETWEEN 45S and 45N latitudes, the sun might provide 1000 watts/m^2, for about 6 hours per day, IF the solar cells track the sun continuously.
For a flat plate laying horizontally (roof top, for example), the panel only gets 3/4 of that 1000 watts/m^2.

[ctdonath2]

That’s exactly what I’m getting at. Now keep going from there:
You’ve worked it down to 750W/m^2.
At 6 hours a day that’s 188.
An optimistic 20% efficiency harvests 37.
Roughly 1/3 lost to weather conditions and you’re at 24.
Allow for other mundane losses and you’re under 20 watts average.
Then throw in random malfunctions etc.

Hence my “10w/m^2” rule of thumb.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Good, valid estimates. Thank you,

[benldguy]

As long as it is Thorium based.

[William Tell]

My daughter's house next door is thirty years younger than mine and much more efficient. The walls were built using two-by-sixes instead of two-by-fours so that extra insulation could be installed. Her house stores the cooler night air and stays cool all day. Mine yields to the heat on the hotter days at around 6pm.

Years ago I disable the heating in my all-electric house when our monthly bill exceeded 275 dollars. Since then we built a sun-room addition which provides solar heating to the interior during the winter and additional insulation from summer heat.

I don't think the average home in the U.S. has exhausted all of the possible energy reductions that technology will make available. I'm slowly replacing incandescent and florescent bulbs with LEDs.

I recall that prognosticators were predicting that New York City was going to fail due to the build up of horse manure in their streets. The predictions completely failed to predict electrical distribution and gas-powered vehicles.

If our so-called educators wanted to educate our youth to the resilience of human beings, they could do so. It simply doesn't fit their agenda.

I'm pretty sure that my ninth-grade English teacher, Mister Hurley, has passed on by now. I thank him for the wisdom he showed in educating his students in the use of propaganda. It's really pretty easy to spot once you learn the tricks such as the appeal to emotion and the intentional exaggerations. Thank you, Mister Hurley.