I often see posted about how covering a relatively small area in a desert with solar panels could power the world – but transferring that energy is too difficult. Why can’t we just use that to charge batteries and ship them places/ everywhere?
In: Physics
Say you want to transport batteries from A to B. B requires 10 batteries/day. Transporting them requires 10 batteries one way (assuming you don’t want to use fossil fuel). So you need to construct a vehicle that carries 30 batteries – 10 for the outbound trip, 10 for the return trip and 10 to deliver. On the way back that vehicle carries 10 empty batteries back to A. Meanwhile A has to charge 30 batteries so that it can fuel the return vehicle and resupply B.
The total batteries you’ll need 30 for the truck, 10 at B and 30 at A. A total of 70 batteries just to keep B supplied continuously. And A has to have the ability to charge 30 batteries at a time.
Think about this in global scales. The solar power needs to be 3x of that needed for B and the number of batteries is 7x that B consumes. This is a made up example but is representative of your idea. You can understand why this would likely not work.
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