Solar panels are more economically productive than any unused land, forestry, or agriculture, and even some land uses in built up areas, such as car parking. What this means is that deploying solar upgrades utility.
There is a question whether there is enough land. The short answer is yes, easily, it’s not even close. Something like 4-5% of Earth’s land surface with solar can provide enough energy for 10 billion people to live at current US levels of energy consumption, and more than 35% of Earth’s land surface is essentially uninhabited deserts, mountains, swamps, forests, etc.
The longer answer is that we can provide the food needs of our civilization with about 20% of Earth’s land surface area under more-or-less intense cultivation, our civilization consumes roughly 100x more energy in the form of electricity, oil and gas, than food, and solar energy is about 1000x more productive, per unit area, than plants.
Strictly speaking, Kardashev Level 1 would require the entire surface, land and water, of Earth to be paved with solar. This is not particularly desirable nor necessary, in my opinion!
Strictly speaking, Kardashev level 1 requires control over a whole planet’s energy budget such that we are capable of using it. It says nothing about what we do with it. “Choose to not use it and leave some spaces wild, when we could easily choose otherwise” seems like a perfectly valid way to meet that criterion (that we don’t yet meet).
Solar panels are more economically productive than any unused land, forestry, or agriculture, and even some land uses in built up areas, such as car parking. What this means is that deploying solar upgrades utility.
There is a question whether there is enough land. The short answer is yes, easily, it’s not even close. Something like 4-5% of Earth’s land surface with solar can provide enough energy for 10 billion people to live at current US levels of energy consumption, and more than 35% of Earth’s land surface is essentially uninhabited deserts, mountains, swamps, forests, etc.
The longer answer is that we can provide the food needs of our civilization with about 20% of Earth’s land surface area under more-or-less intense cultivation, our civilization consumes roughly 100x more energy in the form of electricity, oil and gas, than food, and solar energy is about 1000x more productive, per unit area, than plants.
Strictly speaking, Kardashev Level 1 would require the entire surface, land and water, of Earth to be paved with solar. This is not particularly desirable nor necessary, in my opinion!
Surely, long before we pave over the earth, we will have expanded into space for energy, farming and minerals, and probably living as well.
Strictly speaking, Kardashev level 1 requires control over a whole planet’s energy budget such that we are capable of using it. It says nothing about what we do with it. “Choose to not use it and leave some spaces wild, when we could easily choose otherwise” seems like a perfectly valid way to meet that criterion (that we don’t yet meet).