Andy Goodell wrote:
I think their math is a bit fuzzy. Powering 80,000 homes on 80MW would only give each home 1kW and I think typical homes use more like 4-6kW.
No, that's about right. A little on the optimistic side, but not too far off. The DOE says that the average American home uses 936 kWh/month; dividing by 30 makes it 31.2 kWh/day or the equivalent of 1.3 kW continuous. That's a heck of a lot of electricity, and there's no doubt it could be cut back considerably without much strain, so the estimate in the article isn't unreasonable.
I heard the jury is still out of whether solar panels are worth it. The embodied energy, manufacturing processes, and shipping of panels across the world is probably not the most sustainable use of our resources.
I think we kicked that question around on this list a couple of years ago and that the upshot was that solar had the shortest energy payback of any of the alternatives. But I don't remember the numbers; does anyone? Jon _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
