The Immense Power of Solar Energy
I was recently reading a foundational book about the science of energy, Energy by Vaclav Smil — also on Bill Gates’ bestseller list. In it, he talks about all forms of energy and their units of measure, but what struck me were the numbers around the radiant energy that the Sun gives off. The Sun spews off massive, and constant, amounts of energy into space and towards Earth, so much so that we don’t know what to do with most of it. There are a few descriptions and implications of this book that caught my attention.
The Sun’s core is absolutely massive and is fueled by a continuous hydrogen atom fusion reaction, operating at an unthinkable 13 million degrees celsius. This reaction generates 30 trillion times more energy per second than the total of our fossil fuel use in the entire year of 2015. The Earh from a near perfect delivery of this energy, as virtually nothing interrupts solar radiation on its millions of miles journey towards the Earth’s atomsphere. Approximately 50% of total solar energy reaches the Earth’s surface after accounting for atmosphreric interference, cloud cover, and other absorption / reflection. Solar energy reaches the ground with the power of 342W per square meter, which is an enormous number when you consider this is over every square inch of Earth. Needless to say, we do not have solar panels over a significant percentage of the Earth’s surface, so we are not harnessing a vast majority of this energy.
The implications to me are clear— by multiples, there is more than enough energy from the sun to meet our electricity needs, and probably our entire energy needs. Solar panel technology has become cheap and efficient, and is the obvious choice for us to embrace to cut down on our carbon emissions and save our planet. Yes using solar energy can use a lot of land that could otherwise be used for farming, etc, but soon I believe we will have rooftop solar technologies that will blend into the existing roof and not be an eyesore. Solar also requires battery storage for when the sun is not shining, but these large batteries are quickly becoming more affordable and efficient as well. Even in some northern climates that lack sunlight or sun strength, solar can be the right solution in the right circumstances. The point is, we are letting the Sun’s energy, which is completely free, go mostly to waste every second.
