Here's how much of the world would need to be covered in solar panels to power Earth

Saturday, September 26th, 2015

Here’s how much of the world would need to be covered in solar panels to power Earth

Author: Rebecca Harrington
Source: Tech Insider
Publication Date: 25 September 2015
Link: Here’s how much of the world would need to be covered in solar panels to power Earth

Stephan: I got to thinking today: If the entire world were powered by solar how big an area would that require? Of course it wouldn't be just solar, but assume for the thought experiment it was just solar. I went looking for a responsible answer and I think this is it. Our future depends in large part on how and how quickly we make this transition. Do anything you can to make that happen.

Solar energy is a seriously underrated resource.

More power from the sun hits the Earth in a single hour than humanity uses in an entire year, yet solar only provided 0.0039% of the energy used in the US last year.

Visionaries like Elon Musk think that solar will become the biggest energy source by 2031, according to an interview with Tim Urban on Wait But Why.

But what would a world powered by solar look like?

The Earth would probably be littered with solar panels, right?

Wrong.

If solar is 20% efficient (as it has been in lab tests) at turning solar energy into power, we’d only need to cover a land area about the size of Spain to power the entire Earth renewably in 2030. (emphasis added)

This map, from the Land Art Generator Initiative, shows just how little space that really is:

solar panels world map Land Art Generator Initiative