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One can’t step away from the news for a moment without something shocking. Just in: Donald Trump has evidently embraced the idea (certainly telling people it was his, but no …) of putting solar panels on the (likely never to be built) border wall.

Some days truth really is stranger than fiction… https://t.co/acXHgKsD13 pic.twitter.com/tt3EyJQiwJ

— Zeke Hausfather (@hausfath) June 6, 2017

Put aside any other issue, just how much electricity might this create?

Some very simple calculations (after the fold).

• If the solar panels cover the top of the wall, this would produce in the range of 23 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per day, on average, through the year (or 23,100 megawatt hours (mWh) or 23.1 gigawatt hours (gWh).  Per year, 8,431 gWh or 8.4 terrawatt hours (tWh).
• If solar panels were to cover the surface facing south (putting aside issues of angling or tracking), this could be increased roughly by an order of magnitude — e.g., in the range of 84 tWh/year.

Total US electricity demand is about 4000 terrawatt hours/year, thus Trump’s having solar on the top of Trump’s wall would would provide roughly 0.2 percent of total US electricity supply and about 2 percent if the entire wall were covered with solar panels when (okay, IF) constructed.

Notes:

• A Dec 2016 ‘positive’ vision of solar on the border wall.
• A 2008 vision of a US-Mexico DeserTEC (concentrated solar power, desalinization, agriculture) project.
• UPDATEs:
  • A FT calculus puts this at 3.6 tWh/year.
  • Jigar Shah estimates 6.6 tWh/year. One Way to Get Mexico to Pay for Donald Trump’s Wall
  • Business Insider
    • How much power Trump’s wall could generate if it was covered in solar panels
    • Trump floated a solar-paneled border wall with Mexico — here’s what it would look like

This top of the wall (back of the envelope) calculation derived this path:

• Assumptions:
  • 3850 kilometer long wall
  • 1 meter wide solar panels on its top
    • Thus, 3,850,000 sq meters of solar panels
  • On average, 6 kilowatt hours/day per square meter
• Results
  • 23,100,000 kWh/day
    • 23,100 mWh/day
    • 23 gWh/day
  • 8431.5 gWh /year
    • 8.4315 Terrawatt hours/year

The ‘cover the south face’ is simply a 10x calculation (1 meter on top, 9 meters on south face of wall) that doesn’t account for angling the panels, potential shading, etc that would reduce productivity. To a certain extent, production could be enhanced through solar tracking systems for a portion of the solar panels.