One Terawatt of Renewable Energy
Who doesn’t love to see a new record set? Apparently, very few of us, which accounts for the fact that Guinness has published its book of world records since 1955, and has sold more than 138 million copies in more than 100 countries.
In any case, the total amount of installed solar and wind energy worldwide just exceeded one terawatt (one trillion Watts).
When you look at the graph above, it sure looks like it’s headed in the right direction, doesn’t it?
It’s kind of hard to believe. The total global installed capacity is ~5 TW.
I can look at that and now say that I’m responsible for 1/100,000th of the new renewable energy milestone.
🙂 Though I guess my system doesn’t really count until it is turned on. (Hopefully this week).
But the average capacity factor for wind is ~38%, and for solar is ~20%… while the cf for coal is >60%, and gas is >50%.
So while solar and wind have passed ~1/5 of the world’s total installed capacity, there is a long yet way to go.
Still. The world reached that milestone several years sooner than I would have thought possible a decade ago. Things are moving in the right direction. This is pretty cool.
🙂