“But the whole solar spectrum is blocked, thus robbing 100% of the life-giving sunshine from the ground underneath, creating a man-made solar desert. ”
Which is why they are generally constructed in the desert
The current problem with capturing solar energy is that we demand that it be carbon free and we want to use it directly.
Plant a tree, let the sun shine on it for 20 years, cut it down and burn it in the middle of a winters night to recapture all of that energy from the sun.
The article does a good job of putting the topic in prospective.
...and wind is no better. Max 30 percent efficiency. That is max, no one in their right mind is going to the bank on thirty percent efficient.
Fatal flaw of solar energy = night.
The aim of enviro-tech implementation is ridding the planet of capitalism, and humans. Only the hippies remain.
People underestimate the land needed for significant solar collectors. In a learned paper published in 2013, Graham Palmer has produced a credible calculation that it would take a square with 31-km sides, completely filled with PV panels, to collect energy equivalent to Australia’s annual electricity requirements.
If that is true, they should have done this a long time ago. Supplying all of Austrailia’s power by sacrifciing a measley ~20 mile “square”. That’s nothing.
Solar energy. Our fair-weather friend.
Also oil and natural gas. Though some claim possible abiogenic sourcing for some of these fuels.