Addressing the World's Energy Needs — Especially Those That Are Most Pressing
Here’s an article that wrestles with the confusion surrounding the idea that the entire world’s energy demand could be supplied with PV on 1% of the Earth’s surface. (By my quick calcs, btw, this is true. 1% of the surface of the Earth is about 3*10^15 square feet, times 10 watts/square foot, times 18% capacity factor is about 3 times the world’s energy consumption of 15 terawatts.)
But two quick points:
• No one who understands the problem at hand thinks that PV is a good idea for 100% of the world’s energy needs, and
• Speaking on confusions, the graphs in the article break out energy sources that include oil, natural gas, coal, electricity, etc. Electricity is a separate “source?” Wrong. Electricity is a form of energy that comes from a chemical source, like coal or gas, or a mechanical source derived from the sun, like solar, wind, or hydro, or from something else, e.g., nuclear, etc.
The article makes the excellent point that three billion people cook by burning biomass, especially animal dung, and that this practice is horribly damaging, both to the biosphere and to human health. It is for this reason that I make such a big deal out of bringing renewable energy to the third world.
Those are excellent observations, Craig.
We here in the US are only about 6% of the world’s people (though we use 20 to 25% of the world’s oil). China and India – each with well over three times our population – are furiously chasing our lifestyles (and thus our resulting energy consumption). While China is rapidly increasing its use of fossil energy, it’s also hotly pursuing renewables like wind and solar.
There will inevitably be a rising world market for renewable energy technology, and we should be positioning ourselves to supply it – both for our own prosperity and independence and for the health of the biosphere. If we don’t get the fossil industry’s well-heeled oily feet off the brakes, and do it fast, any hope we may have had in our leadership in the renewables industry will be gone.