Solar Panel Theory
How about Solar Panels?
Here's a little idea I though might help everyone out in Iraq a little: How about if the US mass produces solar panels that are small enough to carry (maybe one foot by three feet) that have a regular power outlet on them to the Iraqis? We could send convoys to the people waiting in line to buy gas and give each person one free Solar Panel. Why?
1. A lot of people are buying gas to run generators for air conditioning, not to fuel vehicles.
2. It would help reduce the gas lines if people only needed gas for cars instead of their generators too.
3. It would help reduce the fighting over the power grid if people didn't need the grid for their own electrical power.
My theory is, once every family in Iraq has enough of these panels that they don't even care about the power grid (during the daytime anyway) it would be much easier to fix the power grid. Maybe these solar panels could even connect to and add to the power grid.
The power we get from sun's radiation is limited by the area we receive sunshine. One square meter will have 1kW power from sun's radiation. For current technology, the conversion efficiency is about 18%. So one foot by three foot of solar panel only produce 180Watt. This will not be enough for your application.