The Power of Sun
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 03.27.07
The other night this TreeHugger happened to catch part of a TV documentary, simply called The Sun. We think it came via the BBC, but can’t seem to locate an original link for you. Suffice to say, given all the talk about the need to rethink our energy needs beyond oil and coal, we were quite taken with a few of the mindbending stats. Apparently the sun has enough of a fuel store to keep on shining for another five billion years. And it's energy output is estimated to be 386 billion, billion megawatts. Or put into more meaningful language; “in 15 minutes the sun radiates as much energy as mankind consumes in all forms, during an entire year.” No wonder it is the nuclear reactor that William McDonough most prefers.
"in 15 minutes the sun radiates as much energy as mankind consumes in all forms, during an entire year"
This may be misleadingly. Only a small fraction of the energy radiated by the sun actually reaches earths atmosphere, and most of that doesn't reach the ground.
While it is true that not very much of the sun's total output reaches the earth, the sun's energy as imparted upon the earth is still mind boggling.
According to an article on solar power published in Scientific American (September 1995), quote: "Every year, the earth's surface receives about 10 times as much energy from sunlight as is contained in all the known reserves of coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium combined. This energy equals about 15,000 times the world's annual consumption by humans."
A good deal of the solar energy imparted upon the earth goes to powering our climate, ocean currents, jet stream, low level winds, and the evaporation/precipitation cycle, as well as supporting the plant life on land and the algae and phytoplankton at the bottom of the food chain in the oceans. But there is easily more than enough left over for us to capture and use.
Consider the fact that we're spending something like 8 billion dollars a month in Iraq, with a requested $145 billion budget for Iraq this year, in a war that appears to have been planned from the beginning to secure Iraq's oil for our use (while using the threat of terrorism as the excuse). If we were to spend even half of what we're spending on Iraq on securing solar power, covering vast uninhabited deserts of our south west with solar concentrators, and equipping all our unused warehouse rooftops with solar power systems and windy areas with wind turbines, we would not have an "energy crisis" today; rather, we'd have energy to spare, cleaner air, and a more respectable position in the world besides that.
Okay, so the sun's power output is estimated at 386 billion, billion megawatts, right? And yet that is nothing compared to the effect of my 2003 Ford Explorer which is causing Global Warming? Okay.