I worry that I phat fingered a calc but estimating the mass of a solar panel vs the fuel needed to produce a similar amount of energy. Postulate is the energy inputs and price of commodities is strongly correlated with mass.
Rough guess is over 30 years a 300W solar panel puts out 20,000 kwh. And weighs about 40lbs. 20,000kwh would require burning about 4000lbs of natural gas. So the weight ratio of the panel/nat gas is 1/100.
That's an aggressive ratio.
Another weight vs fuel calc. An F150 consumes it's weight in fuel every 20,000 miles.
Rough guess is over 30 years a 300W solar panel puts out 20,000 kwh. And weighs about 40lbs. 20,000kwh would require burning about 4000lbs of natural gas. So the weight ratio of the panel/nat gas is 1/100.
That's an aggressive ratio.
Another weight vs fuel calc. An F150 consumes it's weight in fuel every 20,000 miles.