How Much Land to Power The Whole World with Solar?

[ATom]

The European Union is considering a $10 billion plan that would see a string of solar power stations in North Africa and the Middle East deliver electricity to Europe via undersea cables.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...rgy.solarpower

[LMagic007]

Sounds like a great idea on the surface, but could this become the Middle East's and other countries new black gold with western nations continued foreign energy dependency, but just another form of energy ? "Back to the future" ? Little doubt a controversial remark.

Still I like the idea and it beats coal and oil. I imagine that electricity travelling at the speed of light may be slightly easier and faster to transport than foreign oil and coal.

Also the point made in the article about about the plants being built in unstable states is interesting becuase as indicated, if they turn off the stations they loose revenue and they cant store the energy easily without huge additional costs.

Thus it seems there is less incentive for them to try to squeeze supply to push up prices , as the power would be lost, unless they got into the energy storage business also.

re; http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...rgy.solarpower

Would the African nations themselves get to keep any of this electricity?

Once again, Europe profiting off of Africa. Not that this sounds like something that could get out of hand, but I hope it's handled carefully.

[forfi]

Why don't they just wait until Spain and Greece become deserts and then the project would be European and we would not be stealing sunshine from the coffers of the African dictatorships?
Or is there no confidence in the idea that Spain and Greece are due for a climate makeover ?

[nemesis9]

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

As demand rises, price rises. As supply rises, price falls.

I commend you to a study of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

I dont think he's referring to "demand" in the way that you are thinking. Take, the electronics industry, most new technologies are expensive when they are first marketed. Then, after the new technology is adopted by large numbers of consumers, the price decreases. The same will happen with solar panels. Adam Smith doesn't account for this. His "wealth of nations" is not the bible. It's outdated, Adam Smith doesn't take into account environmental and energy concerns. If mankind is to survive, he will need to make much progress in his economic thought, much beyond Adam Smith

Originally Posted by include

Imagine how the world could change if the proportional cost of solar panels dropped just like pc chips have. I know it's not exactly a great comparison, but the general rule still applies.
That wasn't a function of demand, that was a function of technology.

As technology improved rapidly, costs fell -- which led to an increase in demand as a result.

Unfortunately, solar power technology has not increased at a pace anywhere near semiconductor technology.

Moreover -- it can't. Solar power technology is limited by material science, which is moving at a (comparatively) glacial pace.

However, it could if the new technology were to be adopted by many consumers. Then, research grant money would flow into new product improvements. If we got thousands of scientists motivated to study solar technology and gave them the research funds, the field would improve rapidly. I've read several books lately discussing how many such issues were under-funded and there was a lot we still don't know about many of these technologies.

[LMagic007]

Originally Posted by nemesis9

I dont think he's referring to "demand" in the way that you are thinking. Take, the electronics industry, most new technologies are expensive when they are first marketed. Then, after the new technology is adopted by large numbers of consumers, the price decreases. The same will happen with solar panels. Adam Smith doesn't account for this. His "wealth of nations" is not the bible. It's outdated, Adam Smith doesn't take into account environmental and energy concerns. If mankind is to survive, he will need to make much progress in his economic thought, much beyond Adam Smith

However, it could if the new technology were to be adopted by many consumers. Then, research grant money would flow into new product improvements. If we got thousands of scientists motivated to study solar technology and gave them the research funds, the field would improve rapidly. I've read several books lately discussing how many such issues were under-funded and there was a lot we still don't know about many of these technologies.

Yes large scale volume of production will further help lower costs, along with technical advancements. Thus the greater volume demand that can bet met by volume production, the lower the potential price that can be afforded in a competitive market place.

The price per unit falls as the volume produced rises as the margins per unit help absorb capital costs, improving profitability per infrastructural production unit as it approaches its optimal output capacity, before an additional production line would be required and thus further capital investment to then further be recouped by more production to meet increasing demand.

It goes in demand / supply cycles, but as volumes increase, lower unit prices become easier to achieve, so long as cost of raw materials and labour and operation don't increase.

WAFFLE WAFFLE WAFFLE ...................