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The Enormity of the Solar Resource

The Enormity of the Solar Resource. or Eliminating the Need for All Fossil Fuels. Total Available Solar Energy. Energy falling on the entire land area of Earth (that’s just the land not the oceans)per year is:

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The Enormity of the Solar Resource

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  1. The Enormity of the Solar Resource or Eliminating the Need for All Fossil Fuels

  2. Total Available Solar Energy • Energy falling on the entire land area of Earth (that’s just the land not the oceans)per year is: 201,480 X 1012 kilowatt hours per year 201 quadrillion, 480 trillion kilowatt hours per year. 201,480,000,000,000,000

  3. The sun’s energy is free. It is everywhere at some point in the day. It doesn’t care what color you are or your political views, or who you love or don’t love, it comes out every day and warms you up no matter what. …and best part is, you can’t make weapons out of it.

  4. Natural Gas Supply • The energy content of the entire world’s supply of natural gas converting cubic feet to kilowatt hours is: • 215 X 1012 kWh or 215 trillion kWh that is converting the entire world’s supply of natural gas into corresponding kilowatt hours of energy. • 215,000,000,000,000 • In one year the Sun provides 937 times the energy of the entire Earth’s finite supply of natural gas energy.

  5. Marcellus Shale Formation Natural Gas • The total amount of recoverable natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale formation is : • 15 X 1012 kWh or 15 trillion kilowatt hours. • 15,000,000,000,000

  6. United States Consumption of Natural Gas in One Year • The entire United States consumes: • 6 X 1012 kilowatt hours per year or 6 trillion kilowatt hours per year. • 6,000,000,000,000 • VS • 15,000,000,000,000 • Little more than two years.

  7. World Energy Consumption • The world energy consumption from all sources is: • 140 X 1012 kilowatt hours or 140 trillion kilowatt hours per year. • 140,000,000,000,000 • VS • 201,480,000,000,000,000 • If you measure that against the total solar energy per year, 201,480 X 1012 or 201 quadrillion, 480 trillion, the Sun can provide the entire world energy consumption 1439 times over every year for 5 billion years for free.

  8. The total land area of Earth is 148,940,000 square kilometers or 57,506,056 square miles

  9. . Putting solar panels on .07% that’s less than 1% or 700ths of 1%, that area could power the entire world. .07% of 57,506,056 is 402,542 square miles.

  10. To put this in perspective, if you reduced the land area of the Earth to a football field with end zones 57,600 sq. ft. maintaining the ratio, the needed area would be roughly a little more than 13.43 feet of one end zone moving from the one sideline into the end zone. The width of the end zone is 160 feet from sideline to sideline. It is 30 feet long from the goal line to the absolute end of the field.

  11. Solar Land Area in the US • The continental United States consumption of electricity per year is: • 4 X 1012 kilowatt hours or 4 trillion kWh. 4,000,000,000,000 • If you were to power the whole 4 trillion kWh with solar modules you would need:

  12. In kilometers, about 25,000 square kilometers or 9653 square miles.

  13. To put this in perspective the test site and range in Nevada is 12,140 square kilometers or 4687 square miles About half of what is needed.

  14. The total land area of the United States including its territories is 3,803,290 square miles. 9653 square miles represents less than 1% of the land area at .025%

  15. Going back to our football field analogy, to power the 4 trillion 4,000,000,000,000 • kilowatt hours per year, you would need less than 4 feet of one end zone starting at one sideline.

  16. Solar Land Area New York State • Installing distributed generation on less than 1/3 of all existing buildings and parking lots in the state of New York would provide enough electricity to power the entire state.

  17. Silicon • Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust and the 8th most common element in the entire universe. It makes up 27.7% of the Earth’s crust by mass.

  18. When the silica is heated to 1700o C in the presence of carbon, the carbon bonds with the oxygen and the silicon is left.

  19. The Solar Cell

  20. OK so now the stage is set to start generating electricity. However, something needs to get the electrons excited and moving and that “something”, as you might have guessed, is sunlight.

  21. Color • ApproximateWavelength (nm) • White • 390 - 780 • Violet • 390 - 455 • Blue • 455 - 495 • Green • 495 - 575 • Yellow • 575 - 600 • Orange • 600 - 625 • Red • 625 - 780 FYI: A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.

  22. If the wavelength is very short as in the violet band at 390 nanometers (or 390 X 10 -9) .000000390 of a meter the output of the solar cell will be somewhere around 150 watts/m2

  23. If the wavelength is very long as in the infrared band, 2,200 nanometers (or 2,200 X 10-9) or .000002200 of a meter the production is about the same as the violet band at 100 watts per meter squared.

  24. The red band at 600 nanometers is the most effective in producing watts per square meter. Solar cells will put out about 2000 watts per square meter exposed to wavelengths from the red band.

  25. The Solar Cell

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