logo
Published on SmartEnergyViews (http://www.smartenergyviews.com)

The solar solution

By SmartE
Created 12/28/2007 - 11:08

From an interesting article in Mother Earth News [1].

Global non-renewable energy resources in terawatt/hours:

• Coal: 6,000,000
• Natural Gas: 1,500,000
• Uranium 235: 1,500,000
• Oil: 1,000,000
• Tar Sands: 800,000
• Total: 10,800,000

Global annual renewable energy sources in terawatt/hours:

• Direct Solar Radiation: 350,000,000
• Wind: 200,000
• Ocean/Thermal: 100,000
• Biofuels: 50,000
• Geothermal: 10,000
• Tidal/Wave: 5,000

According to the article, total world energy consumption in 2004 was 130,971 terawatt hours, and is projected to grow to 205,686 terawatt hours by 2030.

The article also says:

• "The total amount of energy produced by burning all the coal on the planet would only be equivalent to the solar energy that strikes the Earth every six days."

• "The entire recoverable world oil reserve is equivalent to the solar energy that strikes the Earth in one day."

• "The recoverable world reserve of fissionable uranium is equivalent to less than 1 1/2 days of the energy striking the Earth from the nuclear reaction of the sun."

I haven't been able to verify any of the author's numbers, but if they are even close it boggles the mind. You should read the whole article [2], and ask why we aren't seriously pursuing a distributed solar economy.


Source URL:
http://www.smartenergyviews.com/node/14