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Tip for A Link to the Future
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Provided by: The Reaver of Darkness
Sep 5, 2005
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The power of sunlight = how much oil?!?
This tip is currently ranked 4.0 out of 5 by a bunch of voters.
The Reaver of Darkness has earned 4 gems!
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First, let me tell you that all these calculations are made from estimated numbers, and though I assure you that these numbers are pretty accurate, over the course of making so many estimated calculations, a substantial inaccuracy is likely to occur. How much? I'll let you be the judge of that. Now, let's begin. Direct sunlight on the Earth is about 90 watts per square foot. However, it is commonly obscured partly by clouds, angle, and other things. If you have seen satellite photos of the Earth, then you'll probably agree that most of the land on Earth is not obscured on a normal day. I think it's safe to say that at least 50 watts per square foot makes it through to the ground on most days. Earth is about 6700 miles across, meaning that it's side facing the sun is about equal to a 5000x5000 mile square (this is kind of complex to explain but it refers to how much of a gap it makes in the Sun's 'light sphere', in other words how much light it is blocking and thereby picking up). So that means that the sunlight hits about 25,000,000 square miles on Earth at any given point in time. Only about 1/4 of it is land, so we have about 6,000,000 square miles of land space for the sun to shine on per day. One mile is 5280 feet, but I'm going to shrink it to 5000 to make easier calculations. And I'm not cheating, each time I make a number less, it only serves against my point. But I'm confident enough in the results to do this. So one square mile is then 5000x5000 feet, for a total of 25,000,000 square feet per square mile. So then in the entire 6,000,000 square miles, we have a total of 150,000,000,000,000 square feet. At 50 watts per square foot, you get an average of at least 9,000,000,000,000,000 watts on Earth - just on land. 1 calorie is equal to 1 watt over about 70 minutes. With 1440 minutes in a day, each watt produces about 20 calories per day. That is a total of 180,000,000,000,000,000 calories that the sun provides for our land per day. 2000 calorie diet anyone? sorry - lame joke With possibly as many as 9,000,000,000 people on this Earth (unlikely that there are that many but by the latest figures I heard, it should be close), there would be 20,000,000 calories per person available from the sunlight that strikes the land. That's ten thousand times as much as an average active person uses per day to perform normal body functions, but of course there are other things we use energy for right? Well 1 gram of oil provides 9 calories (hey, this is working out better than I expected). So one day's worth of sunlight would be equal to 20,000,000,000,000,000 grams of oil, or 20,000,000,000 metric tons. That leaves more than 2 metric tons per person per day. If you got 2 tons of oil delivered to your house every day, what exactly would you do with it? btw if you didn't know, that is over 500 gallons. Now you may be thinking how are we going to collect all of the sunlight that touches the ground? Well how many gallons of oil do you need per day? How many calories do you need? If we all had energy efficient things, I'm sure each person could get by easily on 5 gallons of oil or 200,000 calories per day. That means we only need to collect 1% of the sunlight that hits the land on Earth to make the entire world rich energy-wise. I think if you covered your roof with solar panels, it would provide you with more energy than you need to run everything in your house, plus your fancy electric car that you like to frequently take long drives in. But that's just my opinion I guess... |
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There are 17 Replies:
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Message
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Person and Time
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The sunlight energy stiking the earth in 24 hours is greater than the energy in all the oil that ever was or ever will be. The average energy density is 1000 watts per square meter at the surface. The average house peaks at 5 kw which would require 10 square yards of collector area at a poor 50% efficiency. The prototype solar-thermal-electric power plant has been operating far above this efficiency in the desert near Barstow for more than 20 years. |
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spaceman99
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 21 hours ago)
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Yay, spaceman is on. that means interesting chat subjects with someone who actually knows what they are talking about. : ) |
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the oi
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 21 hours ago)
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ahem* are you accusing me of not knowing what I'm talking about? Apparently you weren't paying enough attention then. He didn't say what I said was wrong, he simply added to it. I made this as an estimate designed to get a figure less than what you actually get, just to prove how high it really is. Spaceman, on the other hand, happens to know how high it really is, and gave a more accurate figure, which as I personally would have guessed, is quite a bit higher than what I said. Either way, I think we both know a lot more about it than you. Sorry, I guess I got carried away. But it really annoys me when people accuse me of not knowing what I'm talking about when it's really they who don't. |
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The Reaver of Darkness
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 20 hours ago)
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My comment had nothing to do with your actually. I havent read your post. I was just happy spaceman is on. lol |
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the oi
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 20 hours ago)
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ok then I take it back. But it really did sound insulting. BTW Spaceman, are you able to give me more accurate figures for my calculation? If the sun does give that much energy to the earth, then I must have one of my figures a ways off. First, you said that 90 watts per square foot is average, while I said full - mistake #1. Then if we take into account all the light hitting the clouds and ocean that I took off, you would get at least 150 billion tons, or about 8x what I said. But that is still less than what we've used so far, isn't it? You said 5 trillion barrels would run the U.S. for 100 years. If 150 billion tons was that much more than 5 trillion barrels, then those must be awfully small barrels. |
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The Reaver of Darkness
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 20 hours ago)
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I am sorry. but it wasn't even directed at you. I was talking to my self really. I was hoping he would see it. I apologise if it sounded degrading or insaulting. |
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the oi
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 20 hours ago)
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lol alright. yes, spaceman does know a lot of cool stuff, and certainly makes chats more interesting! |
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The Reaver of Darkness
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 20 hours ago)
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: ) |
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the oi
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 20 hours ago)
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So...how much does it cost for a solar panel roof? |
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Psygnosis
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Sep 5, 2005
(983 days and 18 hours ago)
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well the initial installation is...um a lot more than plain roofing tiles I'll tell you that much. But if you take good care of them (basically don't trample your roof with ice cleats or anything) then good ones should last for life...or until you have a golfball hailstorm. In the end, you should save a ton on your electric bill, since you won't really have to pay much at all. |
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The Reaver of Darkness
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Sep 6, 2005
(983 days and 6 hours ago)
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" If you got 2 tons of oil delivered to your house every day, what exactly would you do with it?" I would sell that oil! Do you know how rich you would be if you could sell 2 tons of oil a day? |
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SniperSpartan
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Sep 6, 2005
(982 days and 22 hours ago)
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The available power from the sun is a lot less than the maximum becasue you can not cover the earth with solar collectors. The amount required is about 5 square meters per family times 3 because the sun doesn't shine all the time. Still, 15 square meters per family is not a whole lot of the surface of the earth. A few hundred square miles in the major deseets of the world would do the job nicely. There are two problems. The facilities would have to be tied to a world-wide power grid, and the oil companies will not allow any solar power developments. Foget solar cells. Those things are 20% efficient at best and their cost is greater than the worth of all the power they would produce in their lifetime. These can only be used for power where cost is not a factor and there is no other source of power. The way to utilise solar energy is to use mirrors to concentrate the energy to produce steam to drive a generator. No new technology is required. |
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spaceman99
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Sep 6, 2005
(982 days and 19 hours ago)
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Exactly the points I've been trying to make! and now there ya hear it from the expert folks!! dang big oil - I just wish everyone could forget oil. I had this great idea, start a business letting people borrow solar collectors on their roof - you would install and maintain them and they would simply not tamper and enjoy the reduced electricall bill, in return you get any extra that is generated and not used which you sell directly to whomever is willing to buy it. I can find only one reason that idea would fail, and that is drive-by shootings. |
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The Reaver of Darkness
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Sep 6, 2005
(982 days and 18 hours ago)
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The only reason why individual solar-thermal electric systems would not work is that they would not be allowed. In early Florida, there was no electricity and evryone had a simple solar water heater on their roof. These were abandoned after electrification. Installation of one of these units is now totally illegal. The building codes have been changed (at the behest of the oil industry) to prevent the use of low-tech solar water heaters. The cost to install an approved system is between 5 and 10 thousand dollars which puts it out of the reach of almost everyone. Any attempt to use roof-top solar-thermal-electric generators would also be subjected to rigid building and design codes which would make them prohibitively expensive. Water is scarce here in Utah and people are being forced to conserve water so that the farmers can have more than thier usual 80% of the water. It was suggested that people could use secondary water (from sinks and showers) to water their lawns. This was approved BUT the installation was required to be designed and constructed by a professional organization (approved by the government) at a cost of $6000. No one is willing (or stupid enough) to pay for such a system. |
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spaceman99
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Sep 6, 2005
(982 days and 17 hours ago)
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Well that sux. |
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the oi
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Sep 6, 2005
(982 days and 17 hours ago)
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yay! we can talk again! grr...forgot what I was gonna say |
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The Reaver of Darkness
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Sep 9, 2005
(980 days and 1 hours ago)
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spaceman your pretty cool hey everyone if you want to do somthing cool go to Millsberry . com and click millsberry-main and click sighn on! |
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angelex13
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Sep 18, 2005
(971 days and 5 hours ago)
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