SOLAR TO SERVE THE WORLD
Here’s how many solar panels we’d need to provide power for the entire planet
Kelley Hodkins, October 6, 2015 (Digital Trends)
“…[Solar energy only provides] 0.39 percent of the energy in the US. This figure is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years with some visionaries like Elon Musk predicting solar will become the dominant energy source by 2031…[ Land Art Generator Initiative used 678 quadrillion BTUs as the predicted global energy consumption in 2030]…They converted this figure to 198,721,800,000,000 kilowatt-hours and then divided it by 400 kilowatt-hours of solar energy production per square meter of land…based on the assumption of 20 percent solar panel efficiency, 70 percent sunshine days each year, and the measurement that 1,000 watts of solar energy hits each square meter of land on the Earth…[We] would need 496,805 square kilometers or 191,817 square miles of solar panels to provide renewable power for the entire Earth…roughly equivalent to the land mass of Spain…[I]t is a small amount of land for a lot of energy…[and it] would be shocking if we didn’t fully utilize this resource in the upcoming decades.” click here for more
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