The total amount of solar energy incident on earth is vastly in excess of the world s energy requirements and could satisfy all future energy needs if suitably harnessed.
Solar energy on earth.
The sunlight that reaches earth every day dwarfs all the planet s other energy sources.
The oldest uses of solar energy is for heating cooking and drying today it is also used to make electricity where other power supplies are not there such as in places far away from where people live and in outer space.
Enough sunlight hits the earth s surface in 1 1 2 hours to power the entire world s electricity consumption for a year.
The remaining fraction 5 to 6 percent is absorbed by the atmosphere by greenhouse gas molecules.
This solar energy is clearly sufficient in scale to meet all of mankind s energy needs if it can be.
Solar energy radiation from the sun capable of producing heat causing chemical reactions or generating electricity.
Calculating solar energy to surface energy from sun to earth.
The rest is absorbed into earth s atmosphere.
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the sun that is harnessed using a range of ever evolving technologies such as solar heating photovoltaics solar thermal energy solar architecture molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis.
Natural solar energy greenhouse effect the infrared visible and uv waves that reach the earth take part in a process of warming the planet and making life possible the so called greenhouse effect about 30 of the solar energy that reaches earth is reflected back into space.
Nearly a third of the earth s electricity will come from renewables by 2024 according to the international energy agency.
As of 2011 the technology produced less than one tenth of one percent of global energy demand.
However the amount that directly escapes to space is only about 12 percent of incoming solar energy.
Solar energy is the technology used to harness the sun s energy and make it useable.
It is an essential source of renewable energy and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending.
Solar energy is the most abundant energy source on the planet.