The total area of solar panels it would take to power the world, Europe, and Germany

[crenquis]

Also the toxic waste produced…
From an old article:

Cost savings of renewable energy might outweigh costs of adapting to renewable energy

Here’s a recent article that has the hard numbers from California solar manufacturers reports to the State: The state records show the 17 companies, which had 44 manufacturing facilities in California, produced 46.5 million pounds of sludge and contaminated water from 2007 through the first half of 2011. Roughly 97 percent of it was taken to hazardous waste facilities throughout the state, but more than 1.4 million pounds were transported to nine other states: Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rh…

was curious about how this would compare to nuclear... (I know, apples/oranges) Just looked at the Nuclear Energy Institute's waste info page -- US reactors produce a total of ~5 million lbs of used fuel a year. The article above implies over 10 million lbs per year of toxic waste just from California PV manufacturers.