iamnotaparakeet wrote:
In the short term, you could fill the surface area of the Earth's land with solar panels, but how many more could you place in orbit around the sun at 1 AU radius and having the solar panels always facing the sun? How many toroid stations with farms could go there also? You have a heck of a lot more volume of space than you do surface area of any single planet, by geometric default.
SO what? Do you know how much energy is need to deliver 1 sq m of solar panel? How long does it take for the panel to collect enough energy just to 'pay back' the energy cost to put it in place?
And if the 'short term' (How short is it?) goal of wide spread use of solar panels on earth cannot be achieved, how can you talk about the use of solar panels in space on an even larger scale?
15 Aug 2011, 12:51 pm
