[extropy-chat] Solar math (was: Nuke 'em)

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Russell Wallace <russell.wallace at gmail.com> wrote:
> > http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar/pv_cell_light.html says it's about
> 6
> > kWh/m^2/month
> > insolation, for U.S. June.
> 
> 6 kWh/m^2/month? That can't be right. Suppose average insolation is
> only 100
> W/m^2 (probably an underestimate for June); there are 720 hours in a
> month,
> so that would make the monthly insolation 72 kWh/m^2/month.

If we suppose that, yes - but we really should get data from cited
sources if possible, for things like this.  It is possible that the
cited sources could be incorrect, but if so then we should counter
those with other, possibly more reliable cited sources.

Not that intuition like this is useless.  It's a great tool for
pointing out where and when we should look.  But it can also lead
astray more readily than solid data, so it should only be the beginning
of correcting this type of error.