The total area of solar panels it would take to power the world, Europe, and Germany. This map is from Nadine May’s thesis [source, read before commenting: http://ow.ly/ga7Z50xBrRU]
definitely it in terms of solar energy hitting the ground there, but even with another hundred years of technology advancement it’s ignoring lawns of physics in energy lost storing and distributing
Also surprised, I'd thought there were lots of concerns over covering the earth in shade and destroying ecosystems that way or something (mainly via cixin liu short story Moonlight)
i've seen this pop up from time to time and it's hard not to be a little incredulous. there's no way we could meet global demand for electricity with a geographic and carbon footprint thats so relatively negligible, right??