A cubic mile of oil, is the energy standard used world wide when talking about energy. What's the BTU output of just only one cubic mile of oil, as compared to wind energy, solar energy, and nuclear electric energy . In order to equal a cubic mile of oil, you would have to have 91,250,000 solar panels with a 2.1 kilowatt system, running for 50 years. For Wind Turbines, you would need 32,850, 1.65-megawatt Wind Turbines cranking for 50 years at 100 percent capacity non stop. You would need 52, 1.1 Gig watt nuclear electric plants for 50 years. There is no substitute for even one cubic mile of oil at present technology. Using the relative comparison of the energy efficiency of oil, compared to these other energy alternatives, you can see that wind and solar will never be able to supply America's energy needs. - Millet

Millet, How can you say: «A cubic mile of oil, is the energy standard used world wide». Most of people of the word never heard of mile... what about cubic mile!
Don't forget that the rest of the world use international system units.
So let's speak of a cubic km that is much less than a cubic mile.
A cubic kilometre is a VERY BIG volume. Why do you use it as a reference?
Do you know that the bodies of all human being on the earth would fit in a cubic km?
When you say «you can see that wind and solar will never be able to supply America's energy needs.»
-America is just a small part of the earth. What about the others?
-The question is not energy to fit to America's "need" but America (and the rest of the world" to fit to renewable energies.

I can see that my English is very poor... Sorry

Sylvain, , I said America because the subject I posted about is American energy usage. I will let the French talk about France, the Germans talk about Germany, the Samoans talk about Samoa, the Eskimos talk about the North Pole, and the dead talk about the dead. A cubic mile is 26.2 billion barrels (42 gallons/bbl), which is about the amount of oil that the entire world uses per year. You can see the huge huge efficiency difference between oil and energy from renewable sources. Thank you for your suggestion, I'm sorry but I, and most people, certainly do not want to lower our standard of living down to a scale of only what energy that renewables could provide. Anyway, take care, and God Bless. - Millet

Yes, I understand well, but what I mean when I say America is just a little piece of the world is that
-Pollution is world wild. When USA burns the main part of the world's oil, the whole world is polluted, even the pigmees who never saw a litre of oil.
-If USA rise their way of living as a "standart", be sure that people of the rest of the earth will demand the same standart. I am mainly thinking of Indians and Chineses. Then you will not need one cubic mile per year but hundreds! What shall you do?

I unfortunately probably know the answer: make an other war somewhere to be sure to keep the oil...

A cubic mile of oil roughly will contain 1.60 x 10^20 Joules of energy, but depends really on quality of oil, so there is uncertainty there to the tune of plus or minus 10%.

One square mile of solar PV at a modest 24% efficiency and at a proper angle orientation in the desert or unarable lands will produce the following energy within a year:
1 mile2 x 2,589,988.11 m2/mile2 x 1000 W/m2 x 24% x 5.75 hrs/day (perpendicular equivalent hours averaged through entire year, factoring in typical cloudiness of desert areas, and typical latitude of desert areas) x 3600 Joules/WH x 365 days/year = 4.7 x 10^15 Joules/year

Square miles of solar panels needed: 1.60 x 10^20 joules/ (4.7 x 10^16 Joules /mile2) = 34,068 square miles (plus or minus 10%).

Taking the square root of that number, to give you the relative size, that is just a 184.6 mile by 184.6 mile perfect square area fitted with solar panels and it can replace the world's yearly oil energy equivalent of consumption. That is really a small piece of land that can make the whole world get rid of energy from oil. We can really get rid of oil if we just have the will. While it could really be a very expensive project, it would also create the equivalent of about 4 million new jobs for the Americans.

The Sahara desert is 3,500,000 square miles, Arabian Desert is almost 1 million square miles, Great Basin desert of USA is 190,000 square miles, Takla Makan desert is 105,000 square miles, Atacama desert is 54,000 square miles, and the Mojave desert is 77,220 square miles. Just less than half of the Mojave desert covered with Solar Panels is enough to supply the whole world's energy equivalent from oil. You need more energy for growing economies? Simply pop up more solar power plants. There are plenty of available land for expansion. You can also float the panels out to the oceans, after all, 71% of earth's surface is water.

Of course, solar PV currently is very expensive. But then again, why should we use solar PV? The newly proven work horse is now Solar Thermal Power plants. It is cheaper (less than half) and quicker (requires only a quarter of the time) to build solar thermal power plants compared to nuclear power plants that can have the same capacity. Solar thermal power plants uses molten salt technology to store excess power during the day, and use them to run steam turbines at night, giving a 24 x 7 power supply, much better controlled to match demands compared to nuclear power plants. The peak demands are matched perfectly with solar thermal power plants with excess to boot, to store and use for evening consumption.

Some of us here might be really addicted to oil with vested interests or have mineral rights to oil or sitting on big pile of oil underneath their land holdings.

But soon the oil will be over and it will lose its evil luster and greed. By 2010, I myself would be nearly independent of gasoline for fuel. I have already reserved for an electric car that will only cost me 1.2 cents of electric fuel per mile and will cover 98% of my daily commuting needs. It will be a good start. The big three leading vehicle manufacturers have at least one major entry for electric vehicles that can meet more than 75% of America's daily commuting needs. This cataclysmic change is unstoppable, after realizing that gasoline went beyond $4/gallon. It would take about 10 to 15 years to switch over to mostly electric for daily commute to work, and a lot can happen, but there is no turning back for manufacturers after they reduced or shutdown their guzzler sized trucks. It could be quicker if as a nation we will have the will. We already have the technology, but oil addiction just like drug addiction, is very painful to get rid of.

Then it will be electric price manipulation by the same powers that be who would simply shift from oil to renewables such as wind, solar and biofuels, and I am ready for that price manipulation too (remember Enron? A lesson we will never forget). I will have grid-tied solar PV before then.

Solar PV can replace oil. If you build it, oil will never come back!

1 cubic mile of oil is 26.2 billion barrels at $143/barrel, that costs $3.747 Trillion.

At solar PV of $1/watt, the world needed to invest $21 Trillion to produce the energy of 1 cubic mile of oil per year, and we can pay off our solar investment in just 5.6 years and rid of oil energy forever. Realistically with economies of scale we can bring down the cost of solar power to just $0.25/watt, then the pay off would just be one and a half years.

It can be done if we don't succumb to economic greed. The process would be long and painful, due to human nature and there will be loyal hold overs. There will be backlashes and turmoil, but it can be done technically.

Joe, I know you really, want solar to come to pass, but in the real world that we all have to live in, solar will never supply the worlds energy needs. Neather will wind. Nuclear, hydrogen, or perhaps a yet unknown break through . Who knows at this time? - Millet

Joe, Your enthusiasm is contagious. I look forward to the day...Barbara

Wal-Mart had enough serious side issues that forced them into putting solar, and some wind at their locations. Wal-Mart developed a less then welcome image with the enviros, an image of being a non-green company. They hope this will "change" their perception. Locally, Wall-Mart installed a windmill at yet another new store, but I notice it is actually operational only about 6 months out of the year. This store also promotes their use of waste kitchen oils to aid in heating the store (yeah right). - Millet

Phillip,

My point is that, IF we talk only about energy equivalents, certainly, oil energy, in fact even all of the world's energy needs can be replaced with solar.

There are still many uses for oil. Where would my automatic irrigation be without those pipes made from oil? How can we have cheaper roads? Although we can find substitutes, it would be very challenging.

As for energy replacement, and how it can be done, we can only try, and as Bob would love to point out, it won't be done in our lifetime.

The approach would be multi-prong technologies. I'll post more later.

Joe