this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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Right now, as we post, the Sun is radiating on Canada:
((at least 100 watts/sq meter x 1 million sq m/sq km x at least 4 million sq km) ÷ 1 billion watts/gigawatt =)
at least 400 000 gigawatts of solar power.
If we harvested 0.1% of it, that'd be about 400 gigawatts of solar power, or about 10 kilowatts per Canadian.
Maybe we could line highways such as the 401, and the Canada-US border, with big beautiful windmills.
As electrical storage would not have to be mobile, the batteries need not be lithium or even lead acid, but wp:nickel–iron batteries, or maybe use wp:Pumped-storage hydroelectricity.
I think we could take 400 000 immigrants a year—probably less than 1% of our current population—particularly Americans, and maybe some Mexicans.
We could end subsidies for the rich, and change our so-called "intellectual property" laws to say ending it after 28 years.
Also we could purchase far less overpriced crap from the US military-industrial complex. It might be time to leave NATO and NORAD as Trump's America is perhaps a greater threat to Canada than the PRC, Iran, and Russia combined.
To electrify nearly everything, Canada would need 1000 twh/year extra solar. 0.25-0.5% of your your 400tw potential. Hydrogen is a practical way of covering energy transport, heating needs, and storage.
More profitable is huge solar/battery systems meant to create $2/kg Hydrogen for use or export from Canada's long summer days, 24/7 availability, and still provide energy needs of winter, and Quebec level cheap electricity.
I'm not sure if most of the electricity generated needs to be converted into hydrogen.
Indeed, I'm not sure if some of the solar power even needs to be converted into electricity: how many millions, or at least 100 000s, of homes could make use of wp:solar water heating. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they covert a greater percentage of solar power/surface area than PVCs and might be less harmful to the environment. Their use would be limited given our climate, but not so much as to make it an impractical supplement.
Most of the electricity generated could be used as is, or stored in batteries or with pump storage hydroelectricity.
Presumably electric vehicles could (continue to) use batteries and railways be electrified.
Hydrogen, or something else fluidic that could be produced by electricity, might power aircraft.
Electricity could be exported to the US, as well as products that require a lot of electricity for manufacture, such as aluminum, cement, refined metals, maybe even compressed and/or liquefied gases such as helium;
and yes, I suppose hydrogen could also be exported.
Although lower tech, it is more expensive than PV, and electricity is worth more than heat. A good solar strategy for winter needs is to have 2000L of hot water and/or smaller amount of dirt, heated during the fall for distribution in winter.
A hydrogen economy is about being able to use all intermittent electricity with 4c/kwh monetization floor. It is suited to Canada due to very long summer days, but in most places in the world, this is profitable unlimited energy free of geopolitical extortion. H2 is cheaper to transport than electricity on wires, but local production is always better as primary energy source.
Obviously, there's no need to nuke all other energy from orbit. It is very low emissions to use them as backup.
Oh, okay.
Some more reading for me to do, I suppose.
wp:Hydrogen economy, wp:Green hydrogen, wp:Solar cell, and wp:Crystalline silicon (which apparantly has a 13.1% efficiency), and wp:Solar-cell efficiency.
commercial solar cells, at reasonable cost range from 20%-25% efficient. I didn't comment on your original 10% efficient "land availability" because some empty space should exist.
I thought I referred to 0.1%, but yes, let's leave some empty space (i.e. maybe ≥ 99.9%).
Again my concerns were/are efficiency and toxicity.
Glass tubes, painted black (or using a relatively non-toxic paint to decrease the albedo to, say, < 0.1), filled with water might have a high efficiency; are easily made (possibly 19th century technology); and with a relatively low impact on the environment.
PVCs other than silicon-based seem to require rare earths and other substances that are either toxic and/or are worse for the environment in mining and refining. Again, this is not to say to not use any, but not to when cheaper and/or environmentally better (or less bad) alternatives exist for particular uses.
The only toxic solar panels (cadmium) are US First Solar (company name) panels. Chinese panels are non-toxic. There are no rare earths in PV solar panels. Rare earths are in electric motors.
I mean you're talking about removing an energy export and replacing it with imports. How do we get the money to begin with to pay for the solar and batteries we will need to import from China, who refine all the rare earth and builds all the solar panels using cheap coal?
Fun fact, the materials needed for an renewables-electric based economy are not single use consumable, the way hydrocarbons are. So if anything, the best use of our current petro-economy is to ...build the renewables-electric based infrastructure. Not to mention that "Canada holds some of the largest known resources of rare earths globally". Maybe if instead of subsidizing oil and gas or spending ridiculous amounts of money on becoming an arms exporter, we funded research and development in renewables technologies we could actually develop home grown technologies of scale?
It's easy. Solar costs the least. Export oil/lng/other resources trade for solar. Cheaper than using our own energy. Still ton of local jobs deploying solar.
Nickel and iron aren't rare earths.
Well sure, but all the metal processing is China, I assume most people don't understand the intricacies.
Presumably this can be easily done in Canada as the technology is over 100 years old: in this, we'd be making nickel-iron batteries, not smart phones.