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Due to the complex interplay between environmental concerns, economic interests and geopolitical dynamics, energy is a highly contentious topic. But according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, there's a great energy source that can fulfill all our needs right above us: the sun.

"You could actually power the entire United States with 100 miles by 100 miles of solar," Musk said during a recent episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast.


Host Joe Rogan was intrigued by the idea, asking, "Really? So you could just pick some dead spot, cover that sucker up with solar panels and charge the whole country?"

"Absolutely," Musk responded. "We need batteries, but yes."

Musk explained that "it's not hard" and "very feasible" to power the entire country with solar because the sun is converting more than four million tons of mass to energy every second and requires no maintenance.

"That thing just works. We have a giant fusion reactor in the sky," he said. "If you can generate energy from solar panels and store it with batteries, you can have energy 24 hours a day."

Musk's perspective not only highlights technological possibilities, but also draws attention to the solar industry's financial potential. In fact, many companies are already helping people harness the power of the sun.

The U.S. was expected to add a record 32 gigawatts of new solar capacity by the end of 2023, a 52% increase from 2022, according to a September report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. The latter expects total operating solar capacity to grow from 153 GW today to 375 GW by 2028.

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Looks like Elon might not be stopping with his affinity for "green energy." At the very minimum, it is interesting to see what he thinks of solar energy and how it can be used in this country on such a massive level. It reminds me of how Nikola Tesla thought about getting energy out to all. Although, in this case, I'm sure Elon will make sure to continue raking in money hand over fist with this, but still, talk about pushing the envelope.

That area just west of Lubbock to west of Midland Odessa would be perfect. Nothing there but pump jacks. Let Texas power the nation.

What's also not hard, a few nuclear plants.

ttu_85 said:

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That area just west of Lubbock to west of Midland Odessa would be perfect. Nothing there but pump jacks. Let Texas power the nation.

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Covering Lubbock would be a good start.

Can we cover Baton Rouge too?

100 x 100 miles of black surfaces that trap the heat from the sun. Let's do it

ttu_85 said:

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That area just west of Lubbock to west of Midland Odessa would be perfect. Nothing there but pump jacks. Let Texas power the nation.

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As someone from a family with a notable amount of land in West Texas, some family members looked into a solar farming possibility and my impression as least currently is the business model is hard to make work.

Still does not address the problems of rain, snow and clouds.

PCC_80 said:

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Still does not address the problems of rain, snow and clouds.

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And in the area mentioned, dust.

Foreign powers would be licking their chops to take out that big target and turn our lights out forever.

A US with nuclear as the fallback option and solar/windmill farms would be ideal.

And he's wrong. See math on page 2 of this old thread.

https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3311707/replies/62810546#62810546

Elon has been pretty pro nuclear... might even have been pro nuclear in that exact same interview.

This should probably be taken as a "if we wont do nuclear, we could do this." insteas of a elon pushing for all green energy.

Seems like more journalism with an agenda... and/or a failure on your part OP.

boboguitar said:

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A US with nuclear as the fallback option and solar/windmill farms would be ideal.

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And with those in Texas and the size of Texas, no one would even be affected by their existence. In the right place, they would likely give a little boom to a nearby small town.

Not Coach Jimbo said:

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Elon has been pretty pro nuclear... might even have been pro nuclear in that exact same interview.

This should probably be taken as a "if we wont do nuclear, we could do this." insteas of a elon pushing for all green energy.

Seems like more journalism with an agenda... and/or a failure on your part OP.

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How is it a a failure to post what Elon was quoted as saying on Rogan's show?

No Spin Ag said:

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Not Coach Jimbo said:

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Elon has been pretty pro nuclear... might even have been pro nuclear in that exact same interview.

This should probably be taken as a "if we wont do nuclear, we could do this." insteas of a elon pushing for all green energy.

Seems like more journalism with an agenda... and/or a failure on your part OP.

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How is it a a failure to post what Elon was quoted as saying on Rogan's show?

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Selective quoting to fit your narrative.

Quote:

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Looks like Elon might not be stopping with his affinity for "green energy."

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Not Coach Jimbo said:

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No Spin Ag said:

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Not Coach Jimbo said:

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Elon has been pretty pro nuclear... might even have been pro nuclear in that exact same interview.

This should probably be taken as a "if we wont do nuclear, we could do this." insteas of a elon pushing for all green energy.

Seems like more journalism with an agenda... and/or a failure on your part OP.

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How is it a a failure to post what Elon was quoted as saying on Rogan's show?

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Selective quoting to fit your narrative.

Quote:

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Looks like Elon might not be stopping with his affinity for "green energy."

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I placed the entire article on here.

The quote of mine you put was my take seeing as how solar is "green energy" and Elon has been known to run with ideas that pop up in his head (Space-X, Tesla, Twitter) and do quite well with them.

ZPM or GTFO

ttu_85 said:

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That area just west of Lubbock to west of Midland Odessa would be perfect. Nothing there but pump jacks. Let Texas power the nation.

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And make the other states pay extra. Like out of state tuition.

Sorry your state doesn't have as much sun as we do. You're free to stick these things all over your state Rhode Island. Oh wait, you don't have any free space and there's a lot fewer hours of sunlight? Sucks to be you. Here's your bill.

As he mentioned, storage is a huge problem for solar. Lithium ion batteries and similar ain't gonna cut it. We need a battery technology breakthrough akin the Apollo program

Transmitting that electricity thousands of miles is the biggest challenge. Maybe if they used millions of volts instead of the 500kv that is typical to reduce losses over greater distance.

There were proposed "space power" schemes going back to at least the 70s. They would put massive solar arrays in geosynchronous orbit and beam the energy down to Earth by microwaves.

The proposed ground reception area was an approximately 100 by 100 mile closed of area of Kansas. God help any bird or plane that flew under the beam.

Just because he said 100x100 doesn't necessarily mean it has to be in one spot. I think you could do smaller fields throughout the country that total that amount.

But my vote is for more nuclear.

PCC_80 said:

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Still does not address the problems of rain, snow and clouds.

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Or a good hailstorm to demolish all that *****

Esteban du Plantier said:

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Transmitting that electricity thousands of miles is the biggest challenge. Maybe if they used millions of volts instead of the 500kv that is typical to reduce losses over greater distance.

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This.

ttu_85 said:

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That area just west of Lubbock to west of Midland Odessa would be perfect. Nothing there but pump jacks. Let Texas power the nation.

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Do you propose seizing private property to do it?

Without an absolute shat ton of much more reliable batteries and at least a healthy dose of spinning generators (inertia to control frequency), I don't see how this works. Massive industrial loads (steel mills, etc) have huge surges in usage that would gobble up large amounts of stored energy. What about a week long winter storm with full cloud cover? Systems must be built to handle worst case scenarios/contingencies.

What also needs to be worked out too is just how much environment would need to be wrecked to get the material.

Thinking outside the box is what has made life so much easier etc and no one does it better than Elon, but we have a long way to go. There is tons of solar in the plans in Ercot so I'd imagine Texas will be figuring it all out.

The world is moving pretty fast right now. We'll see how it works out.

ETA I too would start building nukes yesterday to go along with whatever renewables will come on board.

Rockdoc said:

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Foreign powers would be licking their chops to take out that big target and turn our lights out forever.

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uh, is that any different than taking out refineries or a nuke reactor. Pretty sure either would be an act of war. Sorry this is kinda goofy reasoning

jja79 said:

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ttu_85 said:

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That area just west of Lubbock to west of Midland Odessa would be perfect. Nothing there but pump jacks. Let Texas power the nation.

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Do you propose seizing private property to do it?

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Wow. Does my posting history suggest that? Why not let some landowner make bank by hosting the panels. Uh, we do the same with panels as we have done with windmills and pump jacks for decades. They are called leases.

Fusion is on its way! In a few more decades.

We should find a way to fill the atmosphere with carbon dioxide methane and water vapor trapping more energy from the sun inside the atmosphere instead of letting it uselessly escape back into the void and then harness that extra heat energy all around us.

1) nuclear
2) solar/wind/hydroelectric
3) hydrogen fuel cells
4) marijuana legalization

Republicans would be wise to adopt these as policy positions.

If solar panels continue to gain efficiencies, and there are ways to recycle them, then I'm for putting them on peoples roofs to take advantage of the 10,000 square miles of already available rooftop.

It's a stupid idea that would require thousands of eminent domain lawsuits., especially in Texas.

You don't understand the calculation you're doing. Grid energy isn't consumer level energy. What you pay for a Powerwall is not the same as a Megapack. The performance of those two systems are not the same and the energy shift value is not the same. When you sign up for nights and weekends you're paying a day time premium and a night time zero. With grid energy you're extracting energy from the grid when prices are lowest (and they can and do go negative) and then selling it back when it's highest (which goes much higher than your day time rate).

Tx95Ag said:

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And he's wrong. See math on page 2 of this old thread.

https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3311707/replies/62810546#62810546

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They calculated the land area necessary to produce the annual energy consumption of the United States in a single day, FYI.

It was 3.9 trillion kWh per year and 1.5 kWh per day. That's an average over solar panels across the nation. Even at low production with inefficient solar panels you're getting 1.5 kWh per day in January in Texas.

Take their 1.6 million sq miles, divide it by 365 and you get ~4400 sq miles, which is less than the 10,000 sq miles Musk claims. Musk's claims are based upon total shift to solar energy, not just an electrical shift, so industrial and transportation would be included in that 10,000 sq miles whereas it's not encompassed in the 3.9 trillion kWh figure.