Huge demand ... huge supply ... Technology and economics is the problem
This report prepared in 2006 by Jeff Tsao (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Science), Nate Lewis (California Institute of Technology), and George Crabtree (Argonne National Laboratory) answers a series of questions regarding the potential of the sun to supply energy to the world. The questions are drawn in large part from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Science’s recent report on Basic Research Needs in Solar Energy Utilization (BES 2005). The answers are given in a format suitable for a lay technical audience, and are supplemented by detailed calculations and comprehensive references.
TPB note: While this paper is technically interesting, the idea that the world might have linear GDP growth is a catastrophic idea. On this assumption there is a very high probability there will be some sort of existential crisis that will change everything!
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