[social_buttons] In January, Scientific American writers
unleashed an ambitious plan to halt global warming, eliminate
our dependence on petroleum and the substantial trade deficit,
boost the economy and create 3 million jobs, and brighten the
dismal forecasts for the mid twenty-first century. The plan is
conceptually simple but would be substantial to implement: -
Construct a 30,000 square mile array of solar panels in the
Southwest, - along with concentrated solar power arrays and, - a
massive direct-current power transmission backbone to distribute
electricity throughout the country. - Excess power produced by
the photovoltaic arrays would be distributed and stored as
compressed air in below-ground caverns. Development of such a
system could provide almost three-quarters of the nation’s
electricity by 2050. If this sounds like fantasy-land, it’s not.
The technology is already here, and even if it wasn’t the need
for renewable power is very real. Some scientists are calling
for an all-out Manhattan-Project-