What would be the approximate costs if the US had to rely on solar power?
Question:
Answer:
The US generates approximately a terawatt of electricity. At $10 a watt, going fully solar would cost about $10,000,000,000,000. That is just for electricity and does not include fuel for transporation.
If by 'cost', you mean 'cost in dollars', that's a hard one. In terms of lifestyle, you could pretty much make planters out of all the cars and start walking or riding horses for transportation. You would no longer have air-conditioning. Heating would be available for PART of you house PART of the time. I'd plant a garden right away. Commercial agriculture would pretty much shut down. I'd start thinking about drinking water too. Life would be different. Maybe not worse, but different.
thats very hard to say because the price of the solar panels would change. Some places are better than others for them, and the places that are better are currently the ones that have them, so they'll be less efficient and therefore more expensive. Theres also so many other costs you have to look at that doing an approximation is almost useless becasue of the massive uncertainty and variance. - I won't claim to be a statistician or scientist, so no garrauntees on this answer but I can't see it another way
I think you would also have to offset the cost thru the reduction of pollution trapping equipment on power stations. And all the other rigamorow. Toxic waste diposal and more. See where im going? Solar would be clean. There are no secondary costs. Once built and going, thats it.
Do you mean rely on solar power exclusively? If solar power was the only power we had it would be the end of civilization as we know it. Tens of millions of people would starve -- maybe hundreds of millions. Without factory farming we don't eat. Without lots of energy factory farming doesn't happen and there's no technology today to do it with solar power.
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