The US government opens 22 million acres of federal lands to solar
The US government opens 22 million acres of federal lands to solar
The Biden administration has updated the roadmap for solar development to 22 million acres of federal lands in the US West.
22M acres is 34375 square miles or 89031 square kilometers. The goal is to pick the best 700,000 acres (1094 sq miles / 2833 km2) for solar development spread over 11 western states.
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According to my calculations, 22M acres is about 20 000 TWh/year of solar power, or about 12% of the world's energy consumption.
700 000 acres is about 0.4% of the world's energy consumption.
Nice. One move that powers half a percent of the earth. Thats a huge boon.
If each country did the same, that would be roughly 50% of all earths power demands for the cost of 700,000 acres each. Many countries can't spare 700k acres, but a concerted effort would likely yield at least 30% of all power demands. Im glad the US is making this move.
But it will be used locally so what % of the US energy usage is it?
US total production is roughly 4000TWh per year. 20% is already renewables and another 18% is nuclear.
So an extra ~630TWh of solar which is about 15% of the current total.