Plants are already pretty inefficient (~1-3%) at converting solar energy to stored chemical energy (glucose -> fats/carbs) https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events

Plants are already pretty inefficient (~1-3%) at converting solar energy to stored chemical energy (glucose -> fats/carbs) https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2012/comparing-energy-conversion-of-plants-and-solar-cells https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2012... However ignore the solar conversion, we put in a ratio of 3:1 i.e 3 calories of energy in for 1 calorie of energy out in plant energy (30%). https://sustainability.emory.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/InfoSheet-Energy26FoodProduction.pdf https://sustainability.emory.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/... Add the mix of energy required for irrigation, producing industrial fertilizers, harvesting and then feeding to another inefficient organism (cows, pigs, chicken). https://cbey.yale.edu/our-stories/disrupting-meat https://cbey.yale.edu/our-stories/disrupting-meat Cows are 25:1 ratio (4%) calories of feed in to calories of meat out. Pigs are 1:15 (6%), and Chicken is 1:9 (11%). So if you take the total amount of energy received from sun being converted to chemical energy in cows that is only 0.012% of solar energy output into beef. --- The biggest breakthrough we can make as humans is to efficiently convert solar energy into chemical energy. chemical energy we can eat as food for humans that tastes great, and chemical energy we can use for homes, transport and industrial processes. And the thing about converting solar -> chemical energy is that it is carbon negative. Plants and phytoplankton are 1% efficient, yet they convert billions of tons of C02 + solar energy into chemical energy. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Phytoplankton https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Phytoplankton --- I'm hoping in our lifetimes we can crack artificial high efficiency photosynthesis at scale with engineered algae. Oil is only cheap because of 10s of 1000s of years it has been compacted underground, but at our rate, we may deplete it in 100-200 years. Engineered algae would be way cheaper and distributed than oil. Most humans live where there is sunshine and water. Our future depends on how efficiently and cheaply we can convert solar -> chemical energy.