Posted on 09/24/2019 8:57:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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.
Thats exactly what Im getting at. Now keep going from there:
Youve worked it down to 750W/m^2.
At 6 hours a day thats 188.
An optimistic 20% efficiency harvests 37.
Roughly 1/3 lost to weather conditions and youre at 24.
Allow for other mundane losses and youre under 20 watts average.
Then throw in random malfunctions etc.
Hence my 10w/m^2 rule of thumb.
Good, valid estimates. Thank you,
As long as it is Thorium based.
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.
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