Concentration of Energy by Photovoltaic Solar Panels

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent discussion-list post
“Concentration of Energy by Photovoltaic Solar Panels” [Hake (2012)]. The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: Physoc’s Bud Nye wrote (paraphrasing): “Systems ecologist Howard T. Odum’s energy-focused books http://amzn.to/xkp9cP suggest to me that the probable ‘purpose of life’ involves CONCENTRATING ENERGY by moving it from the lowest quality, most disbursed carriers, such as sunlight, into the most dense, highest quality, highest transferity carriers possible, such as electricity and information, thus minimizing the entropy of systems over time. . . . . . . . but those of us in the West and the U.S. have worked extremely hard to DISPERSE energy and increase entropy. This does not bode well for our long-term future. . . . . ."

An apparent way to concentrate energy is by installing PhotoVoltaic Solar Panels (PVSP) on rooftops. Consider the following “Fermi Problem”: WHAT FRACTION OF THE YEARLY TOTAL U.S. FOSSIL-FUELED ELECTRICAL ENERGY (AND THUS FRACTION OF YEARLY TONS OF CO2 EMISSION FROM U.S. FOSSIL-FUELED ELECTRICAL ENERGY PRODUCTION) COULD BE ELIMINATED IF ALL ROOFTOPS IN THE U.S. WERE COVERED BY PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR PANELS?
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To access the complete 12 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/wdkAoL.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References
which Recognize the Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)

rrhake@earthlink.net
http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake
http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi
http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com
http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake

“Saving the planet, one solar system at a time.”
Motto of “Solar Forward” http://solarforward.com/

REFERENCES [URL shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 06 Feb 2012.]
Hake, R.R. 2012. “Concentration of Energy by Photovoltaic Solar Panels” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/wdkAoL. Post of 6 Feb 2012 09:59:03-0800 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being transmitted to several discussion lists.