The secretary of the Department of Energy made this statement on Sept. 2 concerning a solar-energy incident: “Even if you wrapped the entire planet in a solar panel, you would only be producing 20% of global energy.”

Amazing as it may seem, the Earth receives a tremendous amount of energy from the sun every hour of every day. In the real world, Earth receives approximately 173,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy from the sun in just one hour. All uses on Earth, as of 2024, equal 186,000 TWh. In one hour and four and a half minutes then, the sun could, technically, supply the energy needs of Earth for one year. In consideration of the efficiency of solar panels, the land area required would be in the range approximately one-40,000th of the stated land requirements.

In other words, just 0.3

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