With only two hours the earth reflected back more sunlight than what is used by the entire population in one year.

According to Wikipedia, the earth receives 174 petawatts (=1.74×10¹⁷ Watts) of incoming solar radiation at any given time. Only 89 petawatts is absorbed by land and oceans. The rest is radiated back into space. In 2004, the average total worldwide power consumption of our planet is 15 terawatts (=1.5 x 10¹³ Watts).

Doing basic math:

- (1.74×10¹⁷ Watts) – (.89×10¹⁷ Watts) = .85 x 10¹⁷ Watts x 2 = 1.7×10¹⁷ Watts
- (365 day/year) x (24 hr/day) = 8760 hr = 8.760 x 10⁴ hr/year
- (1.5x10¹³ Watts) x (8.760×10⁴) = 1.314×10¹⁷ Watts

- 1.7×10¹⁷ Watts ≥ 1.314×10¹⁷ Watts.

This shown that the total amount of solar energy reflected is vast. With a proper use of photo-voltaic technology, we can harvest this untapped energy supply to fulfill the world energy demand.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption

Filed under: Solar Energy Facts