Surface Area Required to Power the World with Solar Power

From LandArtGenerator.org, a world map visualizing the surface area required to power the world's electricity requirements using solar power alone in 2030, using current solar panel technology.  It's getting a lot of traffic on digg, reddit and Twitter too.

Also, check out the same idea, but for off shore wind power.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Another visualisation using an inappropriate map projection - the subject is area, so an equal area map projection should be used.

[Randy Krum]

Good point. When visually depicting area, the comparison needs to be apples-to-apples. There are many different equal-area map styles that could have been used.