>Uhh, you just said that is up for debate. Back of the napkin: following Wikipedia world energy consumption is roughly 1/10,000 of the yearly radiation input b

>Uhh, you just said that is up for debate. Back of the napkin: following Wikipedia world energy consumption is roughly 1/10,000 of the yearly radiation input by the sun. This means about 450,000 km² of area for harvesting if we assume roughly 10% efficiency. This larger than the size of Germany. I don't think this is realistic in the short term. For keeping population only stable at current levels by providing everyone the lifestyle let's say of Europe we would need much more energy than that. For our current technology population is too high in my opinion. I cannot provide a solution but if we strive for providing everyone Europe's life style, nature will show us another way of reducing population, I fear.