solar power

I've always wondered-- why can't we just cover the desert with solar panels for renewable energy?

>>1
Because the desert is an ecosystem and we'd be destroying it by doing that.  I'm being sarcastic, mind you, but I'm also typifying two-faced "no harm now, no harm later" ecologists.

Most solar panels currently available only convert an equivalent of ~15% solar energy that strikes them into electricity.  Though there are some outrageous examples of incredibly efficient cells, they aren't commercially viable at the moment of have conditions making their widespread deployment complicated.  A solar system of any significant acreage would require a liquid cooling system that rivals the sewage tunnels of a small city, the watering pinwheels of a farm.  We could be talking in the scale of a whole city of mirrors to support a single city of people per city of people.

Actually, how do we measure how much energy the sun produces striking a region of the Earth? what is the calorimetry used?

A grand opportunity to create jebs. Two birds, one stone!

Nah, I'm kidding. But I think as time progresses it will become a more viable source of energy, especially considering the diminishing rate of gasoline.

4 watts per square meter and you want to use solar?

If 10% of the US electricity generated in 2009 (395 TWh or 45 GW) were to be produced by large wind farms their area would have to cover at least 22,500 km2, roughly the size of New Hampshire

>>4
That's ignoring considerations and assuming they have the same constant output year round, correct?

>>1
By "solar panel" you mean "photo-electric cells", right?

How'bout this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy
Combined with heat pumps, heating could be an asset rather than a problem.