How Much Solar Energy Could Power The World?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment
Solar power systems installed in the areas defined by the dark disks could provide a little more than the world’s current total primary energy demand (assuming a conversion efficiency of 8%). That is, all energy currently consumed, including heat, electricity, fossil fuels, etc., would be produced in the form of electricity by solar cells. The colors in the map show the local solar irradiance averaged over three years from 1991 to 1993 (24 hours a day) taking into account the cloud coverage available from weather satellites.
Interesting, no?
This entry was posted on Friday, April 6th, 2007 and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 9th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Well, according to the map, Africa would do well with solar power. But if anyone notices, most of the red zones are in the open ocean. Doesn’t sound like a scenario that could produce all the world’s energy needs. It could reduce the need for other, dirtier, forms of power for local areas.
April 10th, 2007 at 1:30 am
Solar in the long run definitely seems to have the greatest potential for generating clean, cheap energy, however the biggest problem with the above proposal is transmission. Until we get to the point of being able to transfer power across thousands of miles without the huge energy loss that transmission currently incurs, not to mention the huge and expensive network of transmission lines that would be necessary, having just a few localized solar power plants would not really solve the problem.
However, the point that solar can and could be a viable addition to our current energy policy is valid, if only we could only loosen the stranglehold of Big Energy on our government’s policy and nads, and should be pursued as quickly as possible.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:13 am
I like solar power, but we don’t get enough of it where I live in the UK. However I agree that it is certainly the way forward for the world as a whole. Transmission costs, and the blight on the landscape caused by transmission lines are problems which will require resolution if power is to be centralised. In Scotland there is an abundant supply of wind, hence the building of wind farms to harness it. However the debate comes when plans are lodged to transmit the power to the towns and cities across pristine and scenic areas using pylons. Underground transmission lines would be more acceptable but the cost is substantially increased. A mix of energy sources would seem to be the answer.