Re:Twice the height of the Empire State - massive solar towe...
by estel on Monday July 25, 2011 @05:41AM
(#2801954)
The other aspect you're missing is the probably somewhat larger energy consumption from non-residential properties.
Wikipedia [1] says that the energy consumption of the US is 25,000 TWh per annum. Looking at the top rated comment and picking instead a CF between the two (I used 0.6); we're looking at this tower producing in the region of 1TWh.
So you'd actually need about 25,000 of these towers to provide for the energy requirements of the US. Ouch.
Edit: obviously, this is for the complete replacement of all existing energy use with clean renewable electricity. The gross US electricity production is given [2] as 4344 TWh (2008).
Wikipedia [1] says that the energy consumption of the US is 25,000 TWh per annum. Looking at the top rated comment and picking instead a CF between the two (I used 0.6); we're looking at this tower producing in the region of 1TWh.
So you'd actually need about 25,000 of these towers to provide for the energy requirements of the US. Ouch.
Edit: obviously, this is for the complete replacement of all existing energy use with clean renewable electricity. The gross US electricity production is given [2] as 4344 TWh (2008).
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_of_the_Unite...