i got $5700 from your $800billion / 150GW which is from your national power usage.
It should be higher than the panel price /rated wattage because this figure includes nighttime. Further on I assumed it was running 24hrs/day, so that cancels it out.
However, the proof of solar PV's impracticality is in the pudding. Where are the solar panel farms? Why doesn't some enterpeneur go and build one? It can be done on any scale from a single roof up to hundreds of megawatts, so financing is easy. In fact why don't you? Cover your entire roof. With the profits, rent the roof of another property and cover it too, as you get richer keep expanding!
It's not being done because it isn't economical. Solar thermal seems to be cheaper on a large scale, and I think there are some commercial plants in America using that. Solar thermal also has the ability to store power. I know it feels nice to have no moving parts, but at the end of the day, steam turbines are still cheaper than silicon.
Wind is also used all over the world, because that too is cheaper than solar PV when scaled up.
Last edited by kallog; 03/24/10 06:45 AM.
