Solar energy?
Question:
Answer:
Exclusively on solar power? No. Some areas do not get enough daylight per year, some areas get daylight for only half the year and even then the daylight is not sufficient to power the area through the winter.
You might be able to do it, if you have enough collectors and an effecient power grid to get the solar power to all the areas where the energy is needed, but that would still be vulnerable to mishaps and Mother Nature.
If you included other alternative sources, such as wind power and hydro-electric, you could probably power the United States on a regular basis; provided the energy consuption stays steady.
On what basis? Are you asking whether the USA receives enough solar energy (total area) to supply all its current power needs?
Well, plenty of energy form the sun falls on the United States, the problem is economically collecting and utilizing it. Actually, if one's definition of "solar energy" is broad enough, everything is already run on solar energy, fossil fuels are the result of plants using solar energy. Fissionable elements (atomic energy) were created in stars, but not "Sol" our current sun, so the definition of "solar" does have to be pretty broad.
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