How much Solar Panel area is required to power up entire World? Elon Musk Reveals

[kadamba-warrior]

How about using existing water canals as solar park? Trust me this idea seems very good and at the same time govts can save alot of money while not going for land acquisitions for same.
Here is an examples( from my city ofcourse).
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-01-10/news/57913187_1_power-plant-meil-50-mw-plant

Yup! Covering water bodies with Solar Panels seems to be the most ideal solution for me. The benefits are immense!

The funny thing about Solar Panels over water bodies is that the actual generated energy is the least of the benefits. More important than the energy, you save fresh water from evaporation, prevent weeds clogging the canals and provide sheltered environment for marine life to flourish!

If canal tops are not practical enough, the same could be done on ocean surfaces (that are sheltered from high waves/winds) as well using giant flat top barges! You get even more benefits - less dust covering the panels and relatively more secure than the ones on land!

@Topic: I like to see Indian Railways leasing out the roof-tops of their tens of thousands stations scattered across India for Solar Power Generation to 3rd party power producers. Not only would they mitigate the need for real-estate and thereby producing cheaper power, it will also generate much needed revenues for the cash-starved Indian Railways.

 

[Audio]

I like solar, with it's ultimate iteration, the proposed Dyson sphere* being mindboggling in both scale and energy production, however, solar panels don't work for outer space exploration, at least once you got past the power requirement for a few navigational instruments and some scientific payload.

TL;DR. solar is great, but it can't be the only avenue we pursue into the future.

*Dyson sphere enthusiasts also always manage to neglect to mention that you in effect kill an entire solar system if you construct it, as you take away most of it's energy.
So, it is not suitable for us at least until we've managed to get to other, barren solar systems (where setting it up will kill many required cycles (photosynthesis) needed to produce and sustain life), for which i'm sure we will have to use fusion power and more.....