Solar energy the energy of the future.....157 MegaWatts per square km in the desert when the sun shines.

In June in canada, on a bright and almost cloudless sky day,  we made some measurments of the amount of light energy hitting the earth in one square meter of a back yard in full sunshine, and some measurements when the sun was obscured by clouds.

We got 157 Watts/ metre^2 in full sunshine about 2:30-3:00 pm in the afternoon.

At approximately the same time,  after a set of clouds had obscured the sun, we got 17 Watts/m^2,  approximately 10% of that in full sunshine.  

So in the desert,  we would expect to see better than 157 MegaWatts/square km.  Thats a lot of light bulbs, and fridges and stoves from one square km.   Assuming 30% efficiency for photovoltaics,  it represents about 50 Mega Watts of real energy.

However,  Ted Sargent is presumably still pressing on with his solar nanotechnology,  which can generatte electricity from heat at previously unseen efficiencies (like 80%) approaching the thermodynamic limit.

One can imagine a miniature film with etched waveguides on it on the order of .01 micron to .5 micron in a strategic distribution that would capture the infra red spectrum of the sun, and if it were painted black and placed in a plexiglass dome in the desert,  one might get nearly constant electricity output that could be used to heat water up and store it to run turbines at night.

Already ,  direct optical focusing of sunlight is used in the american and north african deserts to heat water to boiling point and beyond to steam to run turbines that can generate electricity 24/7,  with relatively little acreage of land, very few if ever any clouds, and constant heat and sunlight during the day.  one square km.... imagine 1000 square km at between 30% to 80% efficiency.

Just imagine,  no nukes.......