Will Solar Power Be Dominant in the Next 15 years?

[Compro01]

actually solar will not. it cant because even if we were able to make a 100% efficient solar panels there is not enough free space on the surface of the earth to keep the human race powered up 100%

I think you may be underestimating how much space we have available. You don't need empty land. Toss panels on every roof in the nation, cover the highways with them.

[RobH2]

I think you my also ignoring the potential for the creation of much more efficient collectors. Just like the first computers like ENIAC were the size of buildings, we now have computers 1000's of times more powerful, in something smaller that a deck of cards. I think the will be a breakthrough in size the will enable solar become significant. It makes no sense to suggest that we won't be able to figure out how to use the most abundant and renewal energy source in the Solar System, the Sun. It may not happen in precisely 15-years but I think it will in my lifetime, and I'm over 50. We'll figure it out.

[jimc]

as i said i am just going from what was explained on a discovery channel special on solar energy. apparently even with 100% efficient panels the human race consumes more power than solar energy hits the earth on land. solar i believe could be a major player but we couldnt be a 100% solar powered planet.

[Compro01]

the human race consumes more power than solar energy hits the earth on land.

No, we're not even close.

The Earth gets about 2.7 Yottajoules (10²⁴) of energy from the sun annually. 30% of that hits land, so 0.81 Yottajoules on land mass.

Humanity's total energy usage (electricity, oil, everything) is about 517 Exajoules (10¹⁸)

The former number is about 1600 times greater than the latter.

[Trapist]

If humanity wants to live comfortably 300 years from now, solar will be a part, but not all, of that equation. Solar can definitely use a lot more R&D right now, but when it does get to a point that makes it more economic, it will take off. We literally have a giant ball of energy that can be capitalized on, and it is a shame that people put on their political blinders when considering that fact.

[Mjolinor]

If humanity wants to live comfortably 300 years from now, solar will be a part, but not all, of that equation. Solar can definitely use a lot more R&D right now, but when it does get to a point that makes it more economic, it will take off. We literally have a giant ball of energy that can be capitalized on, and it is a shame that people put on their political blinders when considering that fact.

It won't matter by then anyway because the release of the co2 from fossil fuels will have made the planet how it used to be before the co2 was locked up and humans (as we are now) will not survive.