2014 was hotter than 1998. 2015 data in yet?

They also differ in how their consumption impacts the atmosphere...

I'm skeptical of your figures.3% of my yard would be about 225 square feet. At 16 watts per square foot that's 3600 watts, which is about half the electrical capacity that my house has now - and it's an old house a big yard. Even Queens would probably produce less energy per square foot.Do you have anything but hand-waving to show that solar will scale to NYC? If a "solution" doesn't work, it doesn't really matter how much money it saves.

Did Jon present his plan yet?Did it consist of three words, and was the middle one "baby"? Just asking.

Yeah me too. Let's try a visual representation. Taken from here.Edited by ProtoTypical, : add source

Cute. But it doesn't address anything I've said. It's just more hand-waving.HOW would you transmit power from the Sahara Desert to Europe?I've asked an even simpler question: HOW would you transmit power from frickin' Queens to NYC?Nuts and bolts. HOW?

I think we all know how: on power lines.The real problem with transmitting electricity long distances is transmission loss. How much power do you have to generate in North Africa in order to still have what you need for the consumers by the time it reaches South Africa?Anyone know the math used to calculate these losses?Edited by Jon, : No reason given.

I initially thought the land requirement estimates were somewhat in the ballpark. Then I noticed this:If we need to basically turn everything electrical and then power it with solar panels, it will take way more solar panels than they have estimated.But jumping from nothing to the world is kind of putting the cart before the horse. We would be better to start with a discussion of something on a smaller scale, such as New York City.How much electricity does NYC use?

Right now we transmit power to NYC from the middle of Quebec. The losses would be less if the power was generated closer.

Let me try some less wrong numbers. The entire state of NY used 143,401 Gwh in 2013. http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/ksdata/ksah/energy/18ener7.pdfYou need about 16000m2/Gw of solar production at 20% efficiency. That comes to 2294km2 for the state. NYC has 42% of the state population so they need 963km2. The area of NYC is 789km2.So say that you collect a quarter of the power right in the city in viable spaces and the rest within a couple hundred kms. It wouldn't even be hard. Give the US army a day off and you could pay for the whole thing.Here is a good report

Transmission losses are primarily just heating looses that are proportional to the distance transmitted, and which decrease as the voltage of transmission is increased. They are calculated using Ohm's law.

Yes, I remember.Transmitdental mediation.Ooohmm, ooohmm, ooohmm.Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

Exactly. And more generally, just how much power do people think is actually generated inside of Manhattan using conventional sources anyway?List of power stations in New YorkList of power stations in New York - WikipediaOnly Manhattan source listed:

quote:

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East River Generating Station - Manhattan - 317(MW)

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The question how do we get power from Queens to NYC is a bit of a strange one.

I haven't bothered looking up numbers for the city itself, but as a state, New York gets a large share of its electricity from hydro dams and nuclear plants. Strange. But important.If folks don't understand how we get electricity the short distance from Queens to NYC, is it even worth trying to ask them how they plan to get it from the deserts of California to Juneau?

It seems that there aren't very many participants around who don't understand the process. Electricity is routinely transmitted from one state to another and even between Canada and the US. What lack of knowledge did the question uncover?