The Problem With Solar Energy

besides being cool, as you pointed out, have a very large top surface area which can be covered with....

solar panels!


Hey, what about a wind powered airplane? That way, the faster it flies, that faster the wind turbine will spin, generating more power to go faster...

Actually, I was thinking of arguing that, given the wingspan of the plane, a glider would probably have better range than this solar absurdity.

Solar is just such a bad idea. Diffuse energy is a bad thing. The trend should be toward more concentrated, not less. We should not more backward form oil to solar, but forward from oil to nuclear, the most concentrated energy possible. (Unless the perpetual motion dreams of zero point energy, harnessing the Casimir effect, etc. are possible... Antimatter would not be more concentrated, as the energy per unit of mass from anti-matter would theoretically be the same as nuclear, as would fusion as opposed to fission. Fusion produces no more energy, just reduces the waste and fuel problems.)

Solar is just a bad approach. it is "free", but it uses a tremendous quantity of land. Unless we perfect wireless transmission and harvest by satellite and send it back to earth, it just won't be feasible.