Quote:
Originally Posted by dennis in se pa
I wondered as a child why the power of the ocean was not used for something.
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How much power is there in the tides? The few places it work have very special characteristics which accentuate the tidal difference. Ultra-low head hydro isn't going to power the world.
I calculated the amount of solar panels needed to power the world. It worked out to something like 100-120 mile wide swath of panels around the equator. This does not take into account transmission losses, but does take into account that the most inexpensive panels are only about 10% efficient.
If you can fit a 1500 MW nuclear plant into 1/2 mile x 1/2 mile, and we need about 500 nuclear plants to cover our electricty needs, we can fit these easily in a about 11 miles by 11 miles. We use about 20% of the worlds energy, so you can fit the worlds energy needs using nuclear fission into an area of about 25 miles by 25 miles. That is about the size of the area inside the beltway...
Can you think of a better use for Washington DC?