With fossil fuels getting depleted, renewable energy is our only source of energy. Solar energy is one of the most popular and reliable among renewable energy sources.
Elon has been working on powering homes using solar energy for a while now, and recently he shared a tweet revealing the strength of the solar panels that they’re making for the homes in the US.
While this demo of the room being smashed by the hammer went well (not like the Tesla Cybertruk fiasco), a follower commented on Bill Gate’s opinion on renewable energy where he has stated that nuclear power is the only viable option (even though Gates is currently funding a solar farm that uses AI to optimise energy generation).
To this, Elon Musk replied, “He’s def wrong. Solar power is a Gigawatt per square km! All you need is a 100 by 100-mile patch in a deserted corner of Arizona, Texas or Utah (or anywhere) to more than power the entire USA.” To put this into perspective, this area is almost the size of Noida.
Elon has stated in the past the potential his technology has to harness the power of the sun to power the entire United States. According to Elon, “The batteries you need to store the energy, so you have 24/7 power, is 1 mile by 1 mile. One square-mile,” Musk said in 2017. He further stated, “a little square on the U.S. map, and then there’s a little pixel inside there, and that’s the size of the battery park that you need to support that. Real tiny.”
The study that Musk tweeted (conducted by University College London) gave some clarity on this plan that has revealed that this is pretty doable.
While this sounds like a tempting premise to many, it has various flaws of its own — for starters if a natural calamity destroys this patch of solar panel what would happen then? Also, would people really want to leave their land to be turned into a solar farm?
It looks like we still have some time for solar power to be a common and easily accessible after all.
Source: indiatimes
