This is a hugh area if used for the sole purpose of installing solar panels. Fortunately there are vast amount of surfaces available without the need to cover additional areas.

I did your calculation before for Switzerland: For the 1.5 million buildings you have to use one square meter of solar panel to replace a nuclear reactor. We have five reactors resulting in about 5 square meters for each building to replace all of them. While this is a huge project it's possible to get a average area of 5 square meters per building.

An this example only take in account buildings. There are more unused surfaces: Avalanche barriers[1], surface parking lots, motorway and rail road borders (maybe even across motorways and rail roads), waste depots, yes even on atomic power plants [2] (while they wait to be decomposed).

1. [1] http://www.solesuisse.ch/Projekte/Sonnenenergie/Solarkraftwerk-Lawinenverbauung-St-Antoenien.aspx
2. [2] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_Zwentendorf

That's the key. I work in a paperless office. We don't have fix desks, and having nearly no paper is the key to make this work. We basically need our notebook and an external keyboard and mouse when we move (each desk has a 24' monitor). There are no paper stacks and files to move.

There are still printers in the office, especially legal documents have to be in paper form. Sometimes it's easier to draw something on a sheet of paper. These are rare cases and we are pragmatic enough to just use a piece of paper. Later we scan it, if we still need it's content.

We make heavy use of collaborative tools like Wikis and integrated project tools (like Trac or Redmine). Even our ISO 9001 is managed within a Wiki.

Why? He's calling it technological miracle, that's quite appropriate.

Yeah, the IOC lost the last bit of sportmanship in favor of commercial profit maximization.

First they overruled any critism by the Indian natives. Then ignored any warnings about the insecure bob run. Now the claim insane property rights.

Only your face?

If they where really available next year, this seems to be the perfect solution to control my home. The components works without programming at all out of the box, you'll just need a button and a few digitalSTROM enabled bulb or luster terminal to start. There is no wiring needed, only a simple component right after the fuse or each circuit.

I'll add the server component of course, as this part is released as OpenSource (GPL, as this was said at LinuxTag '09). Using this server I'm able to program and control the house exactly as I like.

I'll use OpenRemote to control the server part. This project finally connects all kind of home equippment together (KNX, UPnP, etc). This project should also provide an easy panel interface.

I think this is the key for battery powerered cars. Switching the batteries using a robot takes no longer than a stop at gas station. You don't own the batteries, you just rent them.

The hardest part with this is the need for the car manufacturers to commit to a few form factors. I think they are again too stupid and release brand specific batteries.

(I saw this working with electric bicycle rent service here in Switzerland/Engadin, where you've got a battery service in each village. You just change the batteries if they are empty. So you'll able to drive a whole day).

~Andy