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It's not likely that solar is tomorrow's oil for two reasons; 1) it won't provide orders of magnitude more energy as oil did when it was discovered and, 2) it i
by Produce 15y ago
It's not likely that solar is tomorrow's oil for two reasons; 1) it won't provide orders of magnitude more energy as oil did when it was discovered and, 2) it is not a finite resource. Solar/wind/green whatever will merely allow us to prevent a grind to a halt.
- kragen 15y agoYes, solar will provide orders of magnitude more energy, the way oil did. This is one of the most important facts in 21st-century politics and economics, so it's surprising that it's so little-known. Total world marketed energy consumption is about 500 quadrillion Btu per year, about 17 terawatts. Total terrestrial insolation is about 130 000 terawatts. That's almost four orders of magnitude more. It's just that, until now, it's been more expensive than fossil fuel to extract it, with low EROEI and long payback times. That has changed in the last decade, but really only in the last four or five years. It is true that it is not a particularly limited resource; the sun will continue burning for a long time, regardless of whether we set up solar panels or not.