[ExI] Dark Matter

[spike]

.. On Behalf Of Kelly Anderson



>>.While highway 50 is a breathtaking example of loneliness, it's also a
great example of why the government shouldn't be in charge of deciding where
roads go.I hate that highways are the example people always bring up of why
we need large government projects. They do it so poorly. -Kelly

 

>.

Kelly I totally agree, so don't interpret the next bit as refuting it in any
way.  Here's our chance to redeem a mistake of the past, to turn a stumbling
block into a stepping stone..Highway 50 had enormous potential as a showcase
location for ground based solar.  It's about 600 km of paved two-lane with a
good solid base under it and very little rain, little cloud cover ever out
there in that big old desert.The road already exists, and isn't being used
for anything, snaking all the way out thru that lonely desert.  The PV
factories in China already exist, and they are filled with workers who will
rise up and kill if they don't have something to do.  We could use Chinese
PVs, American sunshine and coal, synthesize the fuel in Nevada and ship it
all the way back to China if we wanted.  Time to fire up the old
spreadsheet! .spike

 

Ok did it.  Assume using route 50 where it diverges from Interstate 80 east
of Reno, and take that road all the way to Payson Utah.  That gives us over
800km of good two lane road through desert where the annual average is over
5 kWh/day, so 5 could be used as a conservative figure.  That's about
1.8e6Wh/yr/m^2, so one km either side of the road would give us 1.6e3 km^2
or 1.6e9m^2 so that would make about about 3e15Wh/yr, which is a little more
power than the US generated from coal and natural gas combined last year.

 

Someone check my figures.  A single km either side of the road for less than
the distance from Reno Nevada to Payson Utah along and existing road that
NOOOObody uses would replace coal and natural gas power in the US, and no
one would even notice it was out there.  How many have ever been on that
road?  Kelly has, I have.  We may be the only two here.

 

spike  

 

 

 

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