This study shows that domestic
electricity use can be reduced substantially by a switch from including
unlimited electricity in the rent to making individual residents pay for their own individual
use.
Assuming that our photovoltaic cells had a 100 % conversion rate, and we had
unlimited, uniform Phoenix AZ sunshine everywhere in the U.S. we would need (3.9 × 10 ^ 12 kilowatt - hours / year) / (2389 kilowatt - hours / m ^ 2 / year) = 1.6 x10 ^ 6 km ^ 2 of photovoltaic cells to generate the
electricity used in the U.S in 2008.