All Sun All The Time? Not Exactly

Elon Musk revives his plan to power the United States entirely on solar; The CEO of the company that sells the Tesla Solar Roof speaks out.

Mike Brown, December 9, 2019 (Inverse)

“Could you meet the United States entirely from solar energy? Sure, claims tech entrepreneur Elon Musk…[Must recently tweeted that solar ‘is a Gigawatt per square km! All you need is a 100 by 100 mile patch in a deserted corner of Arizona, Texas or Utah (or anywhere) to more than power the entire USA’…The plan itself is clearly a flawed idea — collecting and storing electricity in one small patch of land is just a storm away from knocking the entire country offline — but it illustrates a more realistic proposal that people can meet their electricity demands from zero-emissions sources…

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…[M]uch like the idea to power the world by covering the Sahara Desert in solar panels, or putting a giant floating wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean, the suggestion isn’t so much a call to pick up a shovel and start covering a chunk of the Earth’s surface. It’s more to highlight how humanity has the technology to offer zero-emissions electricity.” click here for more

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