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0 pointsKon5ole8mo ago0 comments

Your implication is misguided, solar is in fact the most practical way to add more electricity for most countries.

The US generated an additional 64Twh of solar in 2024 compared to 2023. To get the same amount from nuclear you would need to build 5 large reactors in one year.

As for land mass, we can re-use already spent land mass, like rooftops, parking lots, grazing farmland and such. Solar can also be placed on lakes.

So for the foreseeable future there is no actual need for new land to be dedicated to solar.

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5423542342358mo ago

Since America is so in love with car infrastructure, just turning open parking lots into covered lots would be more than enough.

Just converting all Walmart parking to covered solar would meet almost half of all US electrical demand.

4,070,000,000,000 kWh US electric use in 2022

Using 330W panels it would require 8,447,488 panels (4,070,000,000,000 kWh / (330W * 4 hours/day * 365 days/year)) which is 164,726,016 sq ft at 19.5 sq ft per panel.

Walmart has 4,612 stores in the US, averaging 1,000 parking spaces per store, and 180 sq ft per parking space (does not include driving lanes, end caps, etc.) giving us 830,160,000 sq ft.

matwood8mo ago

Also doesn't count continuing to put solar on roofs.

klaff8mo ago

You divided kW by W, so off by 1000.

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