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No, to answer the OP's question. Based on consumption and insolation, can't be done.
While I doubt the world will be 100% solar in the next 100 years, both of your reasons are wrong. The earth receives about 100,000 TW of solar energy and uses about 15 TW of energy in total. Even using today's conversion efficiency it's feasible.
Nukes don't complement renewables well because they have very high capital costs and don't ramp well. Simple cycle CT or hydro are the best complements to renewable generation.
Oh, I completely agree that Nukes do not make sense, and never really have.
But sensibility does not seem to be the driver on some of this stuff.
Some of the Upper End folks that like them . . . . really seem to like them.
Oh, I completely agree that Nukes do not make sense, and never really have.
But sensibility does not seem to be the driver on some of this stuff.
Some of the Upper End folks that like them . . . . really seem to like them.
Business people do not like nukes. They only get built when regulators and corporations decide to shaft consumers. The poor people of Georgia are going to get hosed with Vogtle 3&4
The world will look so good utilizing billions of solar panels, just look at the beauty of Ivanpah...
Now picture the OP's 100% solar world...
One other thing, the OP cites a study from MIT yet that study doesn't seem to jive with reality (the largest solar installation in the world, Ivanpah):
Location: Central Atlantic Region, though consults worldwide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD
Absolutely. Without question. Many, many times over.
This simple fact, as clear as it is to experts, still seems to be a radical idea to many members of the public, who appear unaware of the vast amounts of clean, free, renewable energy we have available to use, if we only will.
According to a June report from an MIT conference on renewable energy, using current technology we could harvest an amount of energy equal to the entire consumption of the US utilizing only 6/10ths of 1% of American land area. http://www.eforenergy.org/docactivid...compressed.pdf
Previous calculations from MIT have stated that the current energy consumption of the entire world could be equalled by solar power installations occupying only 10% of the unpopulated deserts of the world. Get the picture yet?
The following details come from an unusually informative infographic which strives to make this point clear to one and all in a visual display. You can find it at https://www.quickquid.co.uk/quid-cor...rld-100-solar/
The solar energy falling on one square mile of earth in a year is equivalent to 4 million barrels of oil.
In one 40 minute period, all the energy falling on the earth could fulfill mankind's current energy needs for a year.
The near-total annual energy consumption by mankind in 2013 was about 500 Exajoules.
The total annual solar energy absorbed by the earth's atmosphere each year is 3.9 Million Exajoules
If you're not good with math, that means that the sun provides 7,800X as much energy to the earth as the total of all the energy mankind currently uses.
But what does that mean in terms of... you know... those PV panels people are putting on their roofs? If you covered Germany in PV panels, that amount of surface area, properly placed, could provide as much energy as the entire world currently uses. In other words, it would only take .2 % of the land area of the globe.
The infographic then goes on to show how much total surface area would be required at the rate of 15% efficiency, like current PV panels; at 19.2%, like thin film collectors; and at 31.8%, like concentrated PV panels, which use optics to concentrate light on PV cells. It's very interesting, when you see the areas actually needed mapped onto the whole world, to finally recognize how small that area really is.
Sure, we need to develop the infrastructure to support the switch to using clean renewable energy, but the energy is there, anytime we're ready to use it.
Here are more than 40 references that were consulted in the making of this infographic...
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Various Weapons Systems. 
