To just keep US electricity production in line with current population growth and EV adoption, an area the size of Albuquerque, New Mexico needs to be converted to solar farms each year.
#checkmymath
Every 14 seconds, the US population increases by one person. [1] That is 6171 people each day or 2.25 million each year. To maintain the standard of living in the US, approximately 1500 W [2] of firm 24/7 electricity generating capacity needs to be added for each new person. That is 3.3 GW that need to be added each year.
In 2023, roughly 100,000 BEVs were registered each month in the US. [3] Or about every 27 seconds a new #BEV requires additional power from the electric grid. The typical #EV requires about 11.5 KWh/day, so this is almost another 500 W [4] of electric generation capability required for each vehicle. This is another 600 MW each year.
Other trends are also increasing demand for electricity like industry reshoring, electrification of everything, and growing demand from data centers. New generation is also needed to replace aging coal and gas plants as they retire.
But, just looking at population growth and electrifying transportation requires adding almost 11 Megawatts of firm new net generation capacity every 24 hours.
Annually, the US needs 34 TWh of additional energy or 4 GW of new net generation capacity a year just to keep up with these two trends.
If this demand is met with solar, it requires about 120,000 additional acres of land to be dedicated to solar each year. [5] This is about the size of #Albuquerque, New Mexico [6] Energy storage for nighttime and seasonal usage increases resource usage even more.
As #electrification of the economy picks up, the annual area that needs to be converted to solar farms should be expected to increase.
I know this is a wild idea, but, …..
By relocating a solar farm into orbit and beaming power to the ground, it’s possible to deliver power using less than 20% of the land required for terrestrial solar. Additionally, it’s possible to bypass transmission lines and eliminate the need for batteries to store energy.
Space based solar power (#SBSP) is a solution that can scale to provide the #energy needed with less environmental impact and at less cost than the alternatives.
Virtus Solis Technologies
#deeptech #hardtech #spacetech