Brother, Can You Spare 22 Terawatts?

Big ideas for the future of energy

Ronald Bailey | November 24, 2006

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Ronald Bailey is Reason's science correspondent. His book Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution is now available from Prometheus Books.

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Comments

|10.30.09 @ 4:32PM|#

Okay, 22 terrawatts. Assuming you get an average of around 0.2 KW per square meter, you will need 110 billion square meters, or 110,000 square kilometers. About the size of Bolivia, roofed over.

Cost? Solar is currently running about $5 billion per GW. So figure $110 trillion.

Now, a small modular nuclear plant producing 25 MW is $25 million each. Figure we need about ten thousand...$25 trillion.

Which do you think the world is going to pick?