SOLAR POTENTIAL OF LAND AREA CONSUMED BY THE CAR IN SELECTED COUNTRIES
Based upon WorldWatch analysis
LAND AREA CONSUMED BY THE CAR IN SELECTED COUNTRIES
Land Area Devoted to Roads in the United States
Functional System	Road Length	Avg # Lanes	Avg Lane Width	Shoulders & Dividers Width	Right-of-Way Width	Total Effective Road Width	Private Road Factor	Minimum Area Directly Consumed by Road	verify total	pavement only
	miles	number	feet	feet	feet	feet	coefficient	sq. miles
RURAL
Interstate	33,067	4.1	12	35	215.8	300	1	1,879	1,879	308
Other Principal Arterial	98,952	2.3	11.6	22.5	350.8	250	1	4,685	4,685	500
Minor Arterial	137,751	2.1	11.5	15	260.9	200	1	5,218	5,218	630
Major Collector	433,754	2	10.9	10	168.2	150	1	12,323	12,323	1,791
Minor Collector	272,360	2	10.1	5	74.8	100	1.01	5,210	5,158	1,042
Local Road	2,102,977	1.7	10	4	29	50	1.05	20,910	19,915	6,771
RURAL SUBTOTAL	3,078,870							50,225		11,042
URBAN
Interstate	13,491	5.4	12	n.a.	n.a.	64.8	1	166		166
Other Freeways and Expressways	9,175	4.5	12	n.a.	n.a.	54	1	94		94
Other Principal Arterial	53,447	3.4	11.5	n.a.	n.a.	39.1	1	396		396			Solar system performance
Minor Arterial	89,911	2.5	11.3	n.a.	n.a.	28.3	1	481		481
Collector	88,604	2.1	11.1	n.a.	n.a.	23.3	1.01	395		391
Local Road	598,514	1.8	10.9	n.a.	n.a.	19.6	1.03	2,291		2,224		est.	1,000	w/m2
URBAN SUBTOTAL	853,142							3,822		14,793		*	12%	efficiency
												=	120	watts/m2
TOTAL	3,932,012							54,047		25,835		*	5	hrs/day
												=	600	wh/m2/day
								2.58	sqkm/sqmi	2.58		*	365	days/year
								100	hectares/sqkm	100		/	1,000	watts/kw
Land Area Devoted to Parking in the United States								13,957,362		6,671,870			219	kwh/m2/yr
										conservative
Country	Size of Vehicle Fleet	Land Area/ Parking Space	Minimum Number of Parking Spaces/ Vehicle	Total Land Area Used for Parking	Land Area Consumed by Road	TOTAL Land Area Consumed by the Car (Parking Area + Road Area)
	cars + commercial vehicles	sq. meters	number	hectares	hectares	hectares
									Solar Potential in Terawatts				Solar Potential in Barrels of Oil
United States	213,509,100	30	3	1,921,582	13,998,033	15,919,615
				1,921,582	6,671,870	8,593,452	---->---->	est.	8,593,452	hectares			8,593,452
						conservative		*	10,000	m2/hectare			10,000
								=	85,934,522,373	m2			85,934,522,373	m2
Land Area Consumed by the the Car in Selected Countries								*	219	kwh/m2/yr		*	219	kwh/m2/yr
								/	1,000,000,000	twh/kwh		/	1,699	kwh/barrel
								=	18,820	twh/yr		=	11,074,396,714	barrels/yr equivalent
								/	8,760	hrs/yr		/	7,665,000,000	barrels/yr consumed
								=	2.15	tw average		=	144%	sufficiency
Country	Population	Land Area	Total Road Distance	Size of Vehicle Fleet	TOTAL Land Area Consumed by the Car (Parking Area + Road Area)	per cap area	pavement to land area		solar potential for paved land			conversion factor	solar potential
	million	hectares	kilometers	cars + commercial vehicles	hectares	hectares	percent	conversion factor	Terawatts equivalent				Oil billion barrels equivalent
United States	278	915,896,000	6,310,000	213,509,100	15,919,615	0.05726	1.7%	2.5E-07	3.98			1.2887E-06	20.52
Canada	31	922,097,000	902,000	17,262,358	2,275,656	0.07341	0.2%		0.57				2.93
Mexico	99	192,304,000	342,000	7,850,000	862,832	0.00872	0.4%		0.22				1.11
Japan	127	37,474,400	1,152,000	71,722,762	1,316,591	0.01037	3.5%		0.33				1.70
France	59	54,563,000	893,000	33,089,000	1,020,586	0.01730	1.9%		0.26				1.32
Germany	82	34,922,300	656,000	45,793,265	749,725	0.00914	2.1%		0.19				0.97
United Kingdom	59	24,159,000	372,000	30,931,191	425,149	0.00721	1.8%		0.11				0.55
Sweden	9	41,093,400	211,000	4,259,027	241,146	0.02679	0.6%		0.06				0.31
Current and Potential Land Area Consumed by the Car in India and China
Country	Current Size of Vehicle Fleet	Vehicle Ownership Level	Total Road Distance	TOTAL Current Land Area Devoted to the Car (Parking Area + Road Area)	Vehicle Fleet Size for Industrialized Vehicle Ownership Level	Total Paved Area Needed for Industrialized Auto Ownership Level (Assumes 0.02 hectares needed per vehicle)
	cars + commercial vehicles	number of vehicles/ thousand people	kilometers	hectares	cars + commercial vehicles	hectares		existing	projected			existing	projected
India	8,200,000	8	3,319,614	3,793,900	512,500,000	10,250,000		0.95	2.56			4.89	13.21
China	12,800,000	10	1,210,000	1,382,877	640,000,000	12,800,000		0.35	3.20			1.78	16.50
Conversions:
1 mile = 5280 feet = 1.609 kilometers
1 square mile = 2.59 square kilometers = 259 hectares
Calculations by:
Janet Larsen, Earth Policy Institute
jlarsen@earth-policy.org
Sources and Calculation Methodology
OTHER DATA:
World Automobile Production and Fleet, 1950-99
GO BACK:
Issue Alert: Paving the Planet
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Reah Janise Kauffman
Earth Policy Institute
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Suite 403
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telephone: 202 496-9290 X12
email: rjkauffman@earth-policy.org
Also visit the Worldwatch website at www.worldwatch.org