How efficient/cost-effective would it be for solar power generation to be used on a massive scale?

Question

Although solar/photovoltaic panels are still quite inefficient, why not use them on a massive scale, in places like Australia or the Sahara where there is bright sunlight nealry all the time? Surely solar farms on a collossal scale would: a) find a use for huge areas of otherwise useless desert, and b) generate enough electricity for the entire country, allowing it to do away with power stations? Or would the overall cost be too great - surely huge projects like these would help to lower the cost of photovoltaic panels?

Answer 1

Photo voltaic cells are an ecological disaster, costing (read using lots of resources to manufacture) a lot, and they have a limited life. They are uneconomic which is why solar farms use mirrors reflecting light to a central tower or to water pipes, where the high temperatures generated heat water to drive a turbine.
In a hostile environment like the sahara, photovoltaic cells or mirrors would be sand blasted into oblivion.

Answer 2

I believe that it depends what part of the world you start using this form of power on a larger scale is important. If you used it on larger scales in Iraq and desert regions more so then metropolitan areas it would be more cost effective for the consumer. And if the law of supply and demand is inplied then the more photovoltic panels needed the less cost would be to make them and the more jobs it would create. Then we could find ways of make the panels smaller and easier to carry and maybe one day they can be used to run the planets that make them.
These places (desert regions) get more direct sunlight and thus have more potential for research on photovoltic power and its affects on human life and the effect rather positive or negative it would have in the long run on the environment.
As far as powering a whole country the research is not out yet that has shown where anything but regions of states or countries can be power by this means.
I would like to research this question more. I would like you or someone else to ask it again in a week to a month and I will have more answers for you and sources too.

Answer 3

Consider the effects of a sandstorm on solar panels. Those that remained after passage of the storm would be either seriously damaged or outright unusable. There is also a danger of exterminating what little life remains in these deserts, contributing to the growth of the desert area.

Currently most of our power outages are caused by downed power lines or insulator failures. These are relatively easy repaired, and the duration of the outage is very short. The loss of a power station can take years to restore.

The DC voltages produced by solar panels are incompatible with our world's AC power distribution systems. Inverting the DC to AC, as it is called, is inherently inefficient.

Answer 4

Why bother to do anything? If all the UK's energy needs were met by so-called 'renewable energy' it would make no difference to the 'greenhouse effect' because our CO2 contribution on a world scale is way, way down the list - far behind the US, India, china, former 'eastern bloc' countries, Malaysia, etc. - it's all on the web -check for yourself! Our bit is like chucking a house brick into Loch Ness - and complaining that the water level has risen! In any case, if all the cold countries warm up, far less energy will be expended on keeping warm, so the whole system will reach equilibrium - for a while, at least!

Answer 5

I read somewhere that a solar power plant, 2 miles square in Arizona could supply the whole of North America with power.

It's definitely a technology that should be heavily invested, along with other alternatives to fossil fuels.

Imagine what the world could be if even a few rich nations used even half of their military spend on research for the good of mankind.

Answer 6

Why not, instead, wait until we get better than 6-9% efficiency with solar cells, so that we don't have to replace every cells again in 20-30 years, for better ones?

Currently solar panels are just not "good enough," compared to other kinds (wind power, water power, ...)

Answer 7

To use solar power on a massive scale would be very efficient but not so efficient on a bathroom scale

Answer 8

Not efficient yet, but, solar heat as in passive and active solar hot water and space heating on a small scale would be effective. Governement shoud give incentives.

Answer 9

Although still expensive and not very efficent at the moment, Hopefully the money being invested at this moment in time will produce better products in 10 and 20 years time (as with any product i am sure the japanese will develop it and the chinese will make it!!!)

Answer 10

Average solar insolation = 1kw/m2. % efficiency amorphous silicon type solar cells =15%. So to replace a single 2000Mw reactor, you would need at least 13million sq m silicon. Or a 3.6km square array.