Ethan...I agree. The most powerful way (to me) that I've heard that fact put was "more solar energy strikes the Earth's surface in less than one hour than all that humans extract, produce and consume in a year."
Ed Mazria also makes this point really well, using the amount of sunlight in terms of BTU/per ft2 that strikes a roof and southern wall of a typical building in Seattle, WA. The more I research these solar breakthroughs, try to contact the companies or institutions, and specify them for our research projects, the more they seem to be about press releases than results. The only exceptions have been NanoSolar and Konarcha, but good luck actually ordering a project due to the overwhelming demand and locked up supplies. Josh On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 11:47 AM, Ethan Oringel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > There is enough solar energy hitting the Earth on any given day to power > the entire planet and then some. > > This article crunches some numbers: > > http://ecoworld.com/blog/2006/06/14/how-much-solar-energy-hits-earth/ > > "the solar energy hitting the earth exceeds the total energy consumed by > humanity by a factor of over 20,000 times" > > If we can harness just a tiny fraction of that energy, we'll be good for > another few millennia. > > We, as a species, will figure this out. We have to. > > Ethan > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Simon St.Laurent > Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 11:09 AM > To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv > Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Major discovery from MIT primed to > unleash solar revolution > > > Andy Goodell wrote: > > It's certainly another feel-good article talking about another form of > > > alternative energy. Without any numbers or hard data though, it has no > > > value other than to make MIT sound green, and raise our hopes that > > technology will save us. > > > > The article says they hope within 10 years this could power our > > houses. In 10 years we may be wishing we could power our houses on > > anything really. I hope in 10 years we won't need to power our houses. > > It's also about energy storage rather than energy generation. While > there's promise here, it promises only to solve one part of the family > of issues around energy infrastructure. > > I worry about the raising of hopes as well, though at least this sounds > helpful. > > Simon St.Laurent > http://simonstl.com/ _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, > please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, > please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- This electronic mail transmission is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential information belonging to the sender which is protected by the attorney-client privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail and delete the original message. _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
