Sunpower
SUNPOWER - We Do The Math (a three minute read ) The US uses 4 trillion kilowatts/yr . 4,000,000,000,000 KW/year, or 11,000,000,000 KW/day. There are peaks & troughs from day to day, but the maximum load days are in July when we have the most sunshine, so could reap the most power. Yes, I know there are cloudy days, but solar panels still work then (just not as well) & that's generally when the wind is up (which we will discuss another day after I've done more research). Sunlight delivers over 5KW/square meter (thermal) on average in the American Southwest. 11,000,000,000 ÷ 5 = 2,200,000,000 square meters of sunshine needed if solar cells were 100% efficient. And, in 2026, it now outproduces coal power. Inexpensive screen-printed solar cells are 19% efficient , (yes, there are perovskite clay cells with 44% efficiency & other tricks to boost efficiency even further into the 60% range) but those are brand new, so let's go with the o...