Energy Scales

Terawatts

watts

4

4.0E12

United States technological, 2011

14

1.4E13

World technological, 2011

50

5.0E13

World technological, 2050 est

200

2.0E14

World, "edible" biomass production

500

5.0E14

US insolation, December minimum

20,000

2.0E16

World plants ( 99% land )

38,000

3.8E16

World land insolation

170,000

1.7E17

World stratosphere insolation

380,000,000,000,000

3.8E26

Solar output

40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

4.0E37

Galaxy output

4,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

4.0E48

Observable universe output

Goal: 10kw/person, 10 billion people (100TW), 1 million years

Stretch goal: fill solar system, galaxy, and universe with life

Coal/gas/oil? No way.

Biomass: Polluting, destroys unseen material cycles, consumes all of nature. Worse than fossil fuels.

Terrestrial Solar: displaces nature, requires US sized area, efficient planetary power grid, terawatt-scale storage. Maybe.

Terrestrial Nuclear: 1 billion year supply, no competition with biosphere, but incompatible with sensationalistic journalism. Maybe.

Space Solar: Vastly more energy available, no competition with biosphere, leads to vast expansion of biosphere. YES!

EnergyScales (last edited 2011-03-19 20:26:14 by KeithLofstrom)