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Elon Musk: We only Need 100×100 Miles to Power the US with Solar

<p>The United States gets about 10&percnt; of its power from renewable energy sources like wind and solar&period; To achieve complete renewable power&comma; Tesla CEO Elon Musk recommends we choose solar&comma; making news when he presented this to the National Governors Association last week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;If you wanted to power the entire US with solar panels&comma; it would take a fairly small corner of Nevada or Texas or Utah&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Musk Saturday at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Rhode Island&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;You only need about 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels to power the entire United States&period; The batteries you need to store the energy&comma; to make sure you have 24&sol;7 power&comma; is 1 mile by 1 mile&&num;8230&semi;that&rsquo&semi;s it&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Why choose solar&quest; Because the sun never lets us down&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;The sun is a giant fusion reactor in the sky&period; It&rsquo&semi;s really reliable&period; It comes up every day&period; If it doesn&rsquo&semi;t we&rsquo&semi;ve got bigger problems&comma;&rdquo&semi; joked Musk&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 46-year-old billionaire recommends we start the transition to solar by installing solar panels on rooftops in suburban areas and by setting up utility-scale panels in rural areas&period; This is a goal well within our reach&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Musk adds that we would need to take advantage of other renewable sources&comma; like wind&comma; geothermal&comma; hydro&comma; and maybe even nuclear&comma; to achieve the transition&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Achieving complete solar power would eliminate over 1&comma;800 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions or 35&percnt; of overall energy-related emissions in the US&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Two things he didn&rsquo&semi;t mention&colon;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>1&period; The economic boom that would be caused by the switch to solar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>2&period; How much money and power he stands to gain if the solar powers are all designed by his company&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In other news&comma; Musk recently confirmed that Tesla will be building the world&rsquo&semi;s largest solar-powered battery to help South Australia with its frequent weather-caused blackout issues&period; The 100-megawatt lithium-ion system will store wind energy and according to Musk will &ldquo&semi;provide enough power for more than 30&comma;000 homes&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> Musk&&num;8217&semi;s proposal is similar in design to what I proposed in my book The Energy Net&period; Unfortunately&comma; he still retains some of the &&num;8220&semi;blame&comma; punish and sacrifice&&num;8221&semi; mentality of the &&num;8216&semi;climate change establishment&period;&&num;8217&semi; Considering his accomplishments as an entrepreneur&comma; one would think he would have a better perspective&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Designing a&nbsp&semi;market where others can participate unleashed the free enterprise engine that has made America what it is today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>By the way&comma; my calculations say&comma; 150 by 150 square miles to replace all energy in the U&period;S&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you want to know how to do this right&comma; without having the government go bankrupt building a huge monolithic solar farm&comma; click on the book below&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><center><iframe style&equals;"width&colon; 120px&semi; height&colon; 240px&semi;" src&equals;"&sol;&sol;ws-na&period;amazon-adsystem&period;com&sol;widgets&sol;q&quest;ServiceVersion&equals;20070822&amp&semi;OneJS&equals;1&amp&semi;Operation&equals;GetAdHtml&amp&semi;MarketPlace&equals;US&amp&semi;source&equals;ac&amp&semi;ref&equals;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;til&amp&semi;ad&lowbar;type&equals;product&lowbar;link&amp&semi;tracking&lowbar;id&equals;punbagpos-20&amp&semi;marketplace&equals;amazon&amp&semi;region&equals;US&amp&semi;placement&equals;0692728643&amp&semi;asins&equals;0692728643&amp&semi;linkId&equals;e6bedc07bd5f0ce18481790c30c40a05&amp&semi;show&lowbar;border&equals;true&amp&semi;link&lowbar;opens&lowbar;in&lowbar;new&lowbar;window&equals;true&amp&semi;price&lowbar;color&equals;333333&amp&semi;title&lowbar;color&equals;0066c0&amp&semi;bg&lowbar;color&equals;ffffff" frameborder&equals;"0" marginwidth&equals;"0" marginheight&equals;"0" scrolling&equals;"no"> <&sol;iframe><&sol;center><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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