How cheap does solar power need to get before it takes over the world?

Re:How cheap does solar power need to get before it takes ov... by CapitalistCartr on Monday April 18, 2016 @10:14PM (#11524465)

Electricity transmission is constrained by line loss, which is proportionate to amperage. To minimize it, voltage is raised to as much as over a million volts, keeping amperage down. This makes for very serious cross-country transmission lines, and electric companies still lose a quarter of the generated power to it. In my opinion, the two great strengths of solar are cleaner power and localizing power generating with its use.

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Re:How cheap does solar power need to get before it takes ov... by marshray on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @12:53AM (#11524960)

Proportional to the square of current (amperage). Or alternatively, inversely proportional to the square of voltage.

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Re:How cheap does solar power need to get before it takes ov... by almostarockstar on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @07:20AM (#11526156)

Unless you user superconductors, like cooled aluminium (if I remember correctly). There is a lot of research in this area at the moment. If you cool a conductor low enough, the resistance reduces dramatically and you can transmit electricity with very little line loss.

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Re:How cheap does solar power need to get before it takes ov... by dagw on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @07:26AM (#11526187)

The problem is that it costs lots of energy to cool things so it's difficult to end up ahead unless we make dramatic advances in high temperature superconductors.

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