In the clean energy race, solar power is speeding up by leaps and bounds. Every year the technology grows a little more efficient, and the price drops a little more. Panels used by homeowners now boast roughly 20 percent efficiency, and industrial solar panels can often boast twice that amount. Despite those impressive numbers, and the huge growth the U.S. has seen in solar panel use, solar power still accounted for less than one percent of the power used in the United States in 2014.
“A Little Corner of Nevada, or Utah, Would Power The United States”
This quote came from Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors during a recent speech. While it sounds like hyperbole, meant to illustrate metaphorically that we could handle our energy needs with relative ease if we embraced renewable power on a large enough scale, Eco Watch crunched the numbers. The result? Musk’s estimates were not very far off, particularly considering the amount of sunlight that falls in Nevada and Utah, and the sheer amount of empty miles those states boast.
While there are other challenges, such as transporting the electricity, Musk’s point was well taken; we have the technology to turn off the fossil fuel tap right now. Not only that, but if we were willing to install slightly less than 192,000 square miles of solar fields (roughly the size of Spain), then we could power the entire world. Or, at least, generate the amount of power that was used worldwide.
So what’s stopping us? Nothing at all.
