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withered_preacher
ColinTheBald
Well, having the sun go down for six months at a time makes it a less than ideal location 🙂
In the spirit of "What If?", I wondered about solar in the Empty Quarter. Saudi pumps about 10 million bbl a day of crude, which at 6GJ/bbl is
6×1016/(24×3600)=7×1011W
Solar PV can do about 200W.m-2, but not all day and there are transmission losses unless everybody moves, so say 50W.m-2 on average given the location.
That gives 14000km2 of solar required to replace Saudi oil, or 2% of the Empty Quarter
The announced Saudi target for solar by 2030 is just 6×1010W
ETA: For wind power, based on replicating Hornsea Project 3 (2.4GW plated power, 696km2), and assuming 40% load factor, replacing 7×1011W of oil power would need turbines extending over a total area of 200,000km2, or about 1/3 of the total area of the North Sea