I read an article in Scientific American back in the early 1990s about putting up a massive photovoltaic array in the Southwestern US to generate electricity for the US grid. I wish I could find a copy of the article, so we have to go with my sketchy memory. The idea was to set aside an area 10 miles square in the desert of Arizona or Utah and fill it with solar electric panels. The panels were the standard primitive type of the early 1990s. The article estimated that this amount of solar cells could supply electrical power for 50% of the USA. Now granted, we used less electricty 15 years ago, but solar cell technology has improved as well. I think photovoltaic cells are about 12 % efficient these days, which is a 4 fold increase from the early 90's. Last year, some Canadian researcher's discoverd a new way to make photovoltaic cells that have a much higher efficiency because they make use of more of the light spectrum, including infrared. Just recently the DOE announced a breakthrough High efficiency solar panel that is 40% efficient.

Now we would have to get that power to the major cities, but we could transform the DC to AC for transmission. If there was an adequate water supply nearby, we could use the solar generated electricity to break down the water into hydrogen and store it for use as a clean fuel or in fuel cells. The necessary technology is available.

This would be a massive project. It would need to be a Federal initiative on the scale of the Hoover Dam or give private industry some economic incentives to make the investment. A tremendous number of solar panels would have to be manufactured and that manufacturing process requires energy. I'm sure we would get much more energy back over the 20 year life of the solar cells. Maintenance and repair costs would have to be considered as well. If the solar panels have a 20 year useful life, we would have to plan to refurbish or replace 1/20th of the solar panels each year, to keep the array operating at full power.

Now what if we made this a national project, like putting a man on the moon and we built 10 of these solar farms? This would be a huge step in solving our energy independence and greenhouse gas pollution problems.