Not to mention the large amount of real-estate that a solar farm requires. Which isn't always convenient either given that it only works in sunny places.
Solar will only ever be a part of the picture, not the whole thing.
Solar will only ever be a part of the picture, not the whole thing.
In a recent 400 MW solar farm installed in Texas, I looked at the cost of land in that area, vs. the cost of the solar field. Land was about 1% of the cost. Land is cheap. We have lots of land. We have so much land, we use it for low value things like farming. And land that isn't suitable for farming is even cheaper than that.
So what if you can find one ideal area in North America with enough sunlight to theoretically power the whole world, it's not the point. Can you find a large enough spot of space with consistent enough sunlight in, say, Maine, to power even a single city there?