ChristianKl comments on Stupid Questions May 2015 - Less Wrong

10 Post author: Gondolinian 01 May 2015 05:28PM

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Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 01 May 2015 10:26:53PM 7 points [-]

Why isn't sea-based solar power more of a thing? Say you have a big barge of solar panels, soaking up energy and storing it in batteries. Then once in a while a transport ship takes the full batteries to land to be used, and returns some empty batteries to the barge.

Comment author: ChristianKl 01 May 2015 11:44:59PM 5 points [-]

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.

Comment author: D_Alex 04 May 2015 07:21:52AM 1 point [-]

Yep... take a look at this, one of the largest solar PV plants in the world:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/35.383333,-120.066667/@35.383333,-120.066667,12z/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!2m1!4b1?hl=en&dg=dbrw&newdg=1

It supplies but ~1% of electric power for Los Angeles... However zoom until you can see Los Angeles itself, a little to the southeast.