Make solar power in power line right-a-ways?

~Sorry this is so long even with editing, but the details determine the feasibility. I pasted this from comments I made at www.answers.google.com~

What would be the power generated in millions of kilowatt hours by
placing solar panels within most of the high tension power line right of
way properties in The USA? These properties are
typically very wide, about 600 feet across.
Assuming each panel is approx. 5x3 foot physical size. Each panel
generates 160 watts at 24 volts in full sunlight. Use three assumptions
of useable land area as 80%, 50%, 30%. Also assume 9 averaged climate
segments across the US. ie; Northeast, east central, east south, etc.
Average sunlight during the 4 seasons in each climate segment.
Using this data, calculate total panels used. Linear mileage of
property available for solar use. A chart showing total power
generation in each segment per season in millions of kilowatt hours.
Do not consider, power gain by high voltage induction to ground ~=1%?~

~This appears to be an arithmetic problem. 160 watts from 15 square
feet of photovoltaic panel is realistic for a clear cloudless June 22
at about 1 pm. Lets assume one kwh = kilowatt hour per panel for June
22, even though this is a bit pessimistic, if it is clear and sunny
all day from 9 am to 8 pm. We can get about 1.5 kwh by tilting the
panels 10 or 20 degrees toward the South, but that will add lots of
wind loading, making the support structure costly, plus 2/3 of the
area will be lost to prevent panels from shading each other during
part of the day and part of the year. About 50 degrees tilt to the south is optimum for December 22.
If the panels are very close to horizontal and tightly packed to
prevent the growth of grass and shrubs between the panels; we do need
to consider how to dispose of rain water. It could be collected and
sold for a profit in some locals. For about 90% of the USA (if we
include Alaska and high elevations, a 50 degrees tilt to the south or
southwest may be preferable to minimize snow and ice buildup. This
also allows workers to reach the panels for shrub, snow and ice
removal without walking on the active surface of the panels. There
will be considerable cost to prevent children from playing on the
panels. indestructible is too costly, I think. In most cases a pole
line road is essential for power line inspection vehicles. One or both outer
edges of the right-a-way will be shaded during part of the day, so a 15+
foot easement is likely prudent. Let's estimate a million miles, 1/10
mile wide = 100,000 square miles. This may be optimistic as various
reasons will arise for not doing this, such as forest fire access, and
medium voltage power lines typically have less than 600 foot right-a-way. A square mile has 27,878,400 square feet times 10.666 watts per square
foot = 297,369,580 watts = 0.297 gigawatts per square mile =
29,736.958 gigawatts for the entire USA. This is more electricity than
can be sold even at one cent per KWH at 1 PM on June 22. It likely
exceeds by 100 what can be sold for 4 cents per KWH from 10 am to 4 pm
most days. This is because much of existing capacity powered by fossil
fuel will be needed daily during peak demand which August though May
occurs after the photovoltaic panels stop producing electricity due
to sunset.
Your plan does have merit and could supply 1% of the USA
energy needs, perhaps a bit more with large taxpayer subsidies. There
is some concern about the pollution produced by manufacturing thousands
of square miles of photovoltaic panels.
oops; I neglected to account for the 1/3 of the power line that would
be shaded by pollution and/or clouds at 1 PM on June 22 and for the 4
time zones, so we need perhaps 2 million miles of high voltage power
line to produce the 29,000 gigawatts = 29 billion kilowatts = 29
million megawatts, which we can't use now, but may be able to use by
2050 which is likely the soonest we could complete such a massive
project. We do (perhaps) have the 2 million miles equivalent if we use
medium voltage line right-a-ways and roof tops of new construction
houses and other structures, but we will be moving into locations that
are often cloudy mid afternoon when the wholesale price of electricity
starts creeping up as the demand is increasing. For this reason
facing the panels south-west reduces fossil fuel consumption and gets
almost the same revenue, even though it means almost no power before
10 am.
At present we typically lose 1/2 the power when we send the power
more than 100 miles, and present technology for storing energy would
require huge subsidies.
oops again: Unless the solar panel is steerable it only makes electricity about 10 hours per day even on 23 hour days in Alaska.
This is because the protective coating on the solar cells is opaque to
very low sun angles. It reflects most of the sunlight falling on it
at low angles.
You suggested 24 volts, but I think solar panels should be connected
in series to produce about 1000 volts which is the upper limit for the
dc input to present inverters which produce about 700 RMS volts 60
hertz ac. Costly transformers are needed to put the output of perhaps
10,000 inverters on the high voltage power line which might be as high
as 800,000 volts. For this reason the medium voltage power lines may
be better, even if they have much narrower right-a-ways.
In locales where people live within a mile of the power line, some of
the panels can be in series to produce 240 volts dc, center tapped for
the homes. 95% of household appliances can be designed to run on 120
volts or 240 volts dc, thus eliminating the 10% loss in the
inverters. This should be practical as a hour of peak demand time can
be stored in batteries, which will voltage regulate the dc voltage, plus
millions of people worldwide live within a mile of a suitable power
line for making solar electricity, so producing the appliances is
practical with millions of potential customers.
Producing and connecting ten billion inverters and a million transformers is also several percent of the project cost, plus a source of much pollution.
Will the inverters be long term reliable in weather and near by
lightening strikes?
Perhaps 2/3 of the power line mileage is in locales that are cloudy
more than 1/2 of the time when the sun is more than 20 degrees above
the horizon. Alaska has few long power lines, and the sun is more than
20 degrees above the horizon only in June and July, plus possibly the
end of May, in Alaska. Please comment refute and/or embellish. Neil~