An advocate of solar with whom I had a discussion said that they can produce 1 kilowatt per hour per square foot. Not having anything to refute that, I asked “then why aren’t all the big businesses using it”? He told me that the oil/gas interests are “supressing” solar technology.
Giving your source the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was looking at a sq meter which would still fall short of that KW figure.
The fact that the greenies HAVE to suppress (like they claim the oil companies do) it is damn hard to surpass the amount of energy stored in a gallon of gasoline.
They make all sorts of claims to ignorant journalists (who are never experts in any field) knowing fully well the journalist will not check the numbers.
From Solar Estimate.org
On average (as a general "rule of thumb") modern photovoltaics (PV) solar panels will produce 8 - 10 watts per square foot of solar panel area. For example, a roof area of 20 feet by 10 feet is 200 square-feet (20 ft x 10 ft). This would produce, roughly, 9 watts per sq-foot, or 200 sq-ft x 9 watts/sq-ft = 1,800 watts (1.8 kW) of electric power.
You shoulda asked him, what if you put it where the sun don't shine?