Solar panels don't take that much space. Elon Musk has a nice graphic in yesterday's presentation of his new battery: https://youtu.be/yKORsrlN-2k?t=3m32s The amount of space required for enough solar panels to produce enough energy for the whole world is tiny.
Yep... take a look at this, one of the largest solar PV plants in the world:
It supplies but ~1% of electric power for Los Angeles... However zoom until you can see Los Angeles itself, a little to the southeast.
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.
To any future monthly posters of SQ threads, please remember to add the "stupid_questions" tag.