[boris]

"Boris, aren't we doing apples and oranges here though? This is not solar cell technology. A football field sized array of solar panels does not generate power for 200,000 households."

Sigh. I use solar cells as representative and because that is the technology so frequently proposed. Here goes.

The "solar constant" in Earth orbit is about 1370 watts per square meter. On the ground, at the equator, at high noon, no clouds, it is almost exactly 1000 watts (1 kW) per square meter.

Solar cells are ~20% efficient, so you get 200 watts (electric) from solar cells. But there is night, so the effective output is roughly 100 watts per square meter.

California uses (electricity only!) 40,000 megawatts 24/7/365. That is 4 times ten to the tenth watts.

4E10/100 = 4E8 square meters. That is 4.3E9 square feet, or 154 square miles.

Notice that this assumes you are on the equator, which CA isn't.

Now. Solar cells could be pushed to maybe 30% efficiency, and then you would need 2/3 of 154 square miles or 103 square miles.

I will bet you anything this solar breeze machine is no more efficient than the best solar cells...Carnot's law and all that.

See?

--Boris

[red-dawg]

It appears that the enviro-flakes are not using photovoltaic cells but rather are thinking of using turbines
to harvest energy in a man-made updraft chamber, which is even more inefficient.

[Lessismore]

Los Angeles county has about 21,200 miles of public roads. If the roads are 50 feet wide on average, we get 21200 x 50 x 5280 = 5,596,800,000 square feet of roadway. Since this is more than the requisite 154 square miles, we can power California by roofing over the roads of LA with solar cells. It'll also provide some shade.