Why Solar Energy Will Change the World in the Near Future
Did you know that the Earth receives more energy from the sun in one hour than the amount of energy that all of humanity consumes in one year, which is 17.7 terawatts-hour? 1 terawatt-hour is equivalent to 1 trillion watt-hours or 1 billion kilowatt-hours. This means that the potential of solar energy in powering the whole world is very big. In fact, in terms of energy potential, solar energy dwarfs all the other types of energy sources, renewables and fossil fuels alike. The comparison of the total energy potentials for each energy sources is shown below: As we can see, the energy potential of solar is so huge that it is even more than all the other energy sources combined! Because of this, as of the current state of solar PV technology, we would only need to fill 496,805 square kilometers with solar panels to power the whole world. This is a land area that is only almost as big as Spain. The International Energy Agency is also projecting that solar energy will be our primary source