Look Sciences is not about consensus, it is fact, provable fact! Not theory, just ask the Astronaut that just resigned http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=...num=1&ct=title If GW is real or man made! Is 115 record lows in October part of "It's real" or record cold in Europe?

I am so glad you brought up solar panels!! Fact it would take a solar panel 300 years to recover the energy it takes to make it! Learn a little! Hummm, how is that made! Here is a quot from a scientific discussion on the net: "Solar insolation at earth orbit in the vacuum of space is only 1000W/m2. It's reduced coming through the atmosphere; at high noon in the Sahara desert during the summer it's about 900W/m2.

Personally, I prefer to use NASA's global insolation average of 342W/m2. This takes into account variations in weather, time of year and sunrise and sunset.

At 10% efficiency that works out to 34.2W/m2. 1000MW divided by 34.2W/m2 gives rougly 29.2 million square meters which is 29.2 sq km. If Google is to be believed, 1 sq kilometer = 0.386102159 sq miles which works out to be roughly 11.3 square miles.

Just remember, nothing will live under this thing because there is no sunlight underneath it to allow anything to grow. You will also miles of road, support structures and cables to service and transport electricity for this thing.

This solar panel and it's supporting infrastructure will be made from materials dug out of the ground so imagine a hole somewhere in the world 11 square miles round and a depth equivalent to the height of this thing.

The real calculation that needs to be done is figuring out how much energy a solar panel will put out over it's lifetime compared to the amount of energy needed to make it. Because if it takes more energy to make then it delivers then it does more harm to the environment then good. Don't forget to include the energy cost of servicing, recycling dead panels, and the rest of the infrastructure."

An engineer told me personally it takes 300 years to recoup the "Total" amount of energy for production!

The answer is Nuclear!

We are in the mess we are in from the Dumocrats setting rules for over 60 years! We need to let "Free Market forces" drive the next technology!