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!