[Phys-l] Could the U.S. Significantly Reduce Its Yearly Emission of CO2 By Covering Its Rooftops With Photovoltaic Panels? #2

[Richard Hake <rrhake@earthlink.net>]

Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a recent post 
"Could the U.S. Significantly Reduce Its Yearly Emission of CO2 By 
Covering Its Rooftops With Photovoltaic Panels? #2" [Hake (2012b)]. 
The abstract reads: 

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ABSTRACT: In a previous post "Concentration of Energy by Photovoltaic 
Solar Panels" [Hake (2012a) I posed the following "Fermi Problem":

"What fraction 'f' of the yearly total U.S. fossil-fueled electrical 
energy (and thus fraction of yearly tons of CO2 emission from U.S. 
fossil-fueled electrical energy production) could be eliminated if 
all rooftops in the U.S. were covered by photovoltaic solar panels?"

In this post I estimate f = 1.1 - considerably larger than the 
estimate f = 0.08 of MathEdCC's Guy Brandenburg. Perhaps others would 
like to consider this problem.

In Hake (2012a) I warned (paraphrasing): "Before recommending that 
all U.S. rooftops be covered with PhotoVoltaic Solar Panels one 
should consider the EMERGY associated with such a plan. Odum wrote: 
"EMERGY measures both the work of nature and that of humans in 
generating products and services. . . . The photovoltaic power grid 
at Austin, Tex., evaluated by King & Schmandt (1991), is taking more 
EMERGY out of society than it is generating."

So is the motto of Solar Forward <http://solarforward.com/>: "SAVING 
THE PLANET, ONE SOLAR SYSTEM AT A TIME" a deception? I THINK NOT 
because the evaluation of King & Schmandt (1991), failed to consider 
the devastating decrease in EMERGY due to global warming if the 
world's dependence on fossil fuels is not reduced.
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To access the complete 18 kB post please click on <http://bit.ly/zT7dKj>.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the
      Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com>
<http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake>


REFERENCES [URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 09 Feb 2012.]
Hake, R.R. 2012a. "Concentration of Energy by Photovoltaic Solar 
Panels" online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at 
<http://bit.ly/wdkAoL>. Post of 6 Feb 2012 09:59:03-0800 to AERA-L 
and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being 
transmitted to several discussion lists and are also on my blog 
"Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/Aimt1K> with a provision for 
comments.

Hake, R.R. 2012b. "Could the U.S. Significantly Reduce Its Yearly 
Emission of CO2 By Covering Its Rooftops With Photovoltaic Panels? 
#2" online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://bit.ly/AsRbCR>. 
Post of  10 Feb 2012 13:43:02 -0800 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The 
abstract and link to the complete post are being transmitted to 
several discussion lists and are also on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at 
<http://bit.ly/yPUZ6u> with a provision for comments.