Al, thanks for the calculations: Validation, except he went for New Mexico and was using older less efficient panels:
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/alternative-energy/amazing-total-area-of-solar-panels-to-power-the-united-states/This is doable for the USA IMHO, but the issue would be cost effective storage of energy somehow so the lights can shine at night or in a storm. Batteries cost a bomb. Maybe pump water up behind a dam for hydro overnight, or split water into its combustible parts?
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
