Should add how long it took for the world to install the first gigawatt of solar power.
this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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This entire time period the opponents of solar power haven't budged.
Imagine how most faster it would be without the oil industry propaganda against it
And without right-wing politicians working hard to hamper it.
and without the idiots eating it up
If even 10% of the resource of the oil barons was put into battery storage and grid improvements, the entire electricity sector would be green in like 1-2 years.
Things that would look more impressive in linear scale
It would be so beneficial to present these data on a linear scale. So few people understand log scales that the impact of this graph is being weakened.
Also, I feel like it would be easier to understand a linear plot of "GigaWatts capacity added per day".
Yeah, that's a good idea too. It would probably be useful to look at the progress from multiple angles.
How many gigawatts do we need?
1.21
apparently around 25 terawatt hours is what the entire world uses
probably would want to use more than that though so yeah, a lot
so one gigawatt its like a thousand days, so we are talking 30 years to replace fossil fuels, unless the rate keeps expanding?
Just watched an interesting video about the efficiency of renewables meaning we’ll need less total capacity to output the same amount of usable energy
Terrawatt hours (per year, I assume?) is a strange way to express power usage. It's like saying "my girlfriend lives only 60 km/h minutes away" instead of "1 km away".
And the value is equivalent to 2.74 gigawatts of continuous power output. Which is way too low to be right.
But it's what I'm finding online too. It's like nobody understands what the units mean and they only care about relative changes over time.
I did find the statement that "the total global electricity [generation] capacity in 2022 was nearly 8.9 terawatt (TW)", which makes more sense.
So, you're right, but there is kind of a difference. Watts measure energy rate at an instantaneous moment, but watt-hours (or commonly kilowatt hours) measures that rate over a timeframe. Yes you're back to joules, but its because they're specifically relating it back to watts, it ends up a more useful unit to be in kW and kWh instead of J and kW or something like that.
25twh is pre COVID, now it's almost 30twh. But only 18twh is coal/gas/petro. So only 50 years to replace that much with just solar at the current rate.
I'm working my numbers to add solar right now. Estimates are that we can offset 69% of our power usage. It will return 150% of our investment overall. That's based on a very conservative rise of 5% in energy costs.
Adding solar right now is really no no brainer imo. Prices are only going to rise, and much more than the current 5% annually estimate out there currently. Panels last for a long time, and even at reduced efficiency towards the end of their life span, it is still a net gain. By then they've paid for themselves well, well before this point.
Right now they give an average home value increase of between 6% and 9%. I think we're going to see that rise as energy prices rise. Especially if you can get a low carbon footprint rating on your home.
Things are only going to get hotter. I've been in e wa state for 27 years now. I've never seen the weather as wild as it is. It's been getting steadily hotter and hotter. Breaking triple digits was super rare. Now it's the norm. We're breaking high temp records left and right. Not just summer either. Offsetting that increase energy use is going to be a must for everyone.
Theoretically, once you've installed the solar panels it should be cheaper to replace them as a lot of the wiring and hardware should still be usable. Which should cut down on future costs as well if you only need to replace the panels, not run wires.
Which definitely supports my theory that home value will only increase over time.
Yup! Although, you have to consider the type and health of the roof the panels are going on. If you have a roof that needs replacing in 5 years it's not going to be as smart to install solar now. Or do both at the same time.
Also, a metal roof will last far longer, which will allow more time to replace solar panels before needing to replace hardware/wiring.
Had ours replaced 2 years ago. All on insurance dime as well because of wind damage. Roof was 20 years old though.
I just found out our company is going to start peak hour surge rates that will be double the normal ppkwh. They're also proposing buying up another power company that is under multiple lawsuits for negligence that caused a large wildfire which hit a small town. I expect prices will go up if/when that happens as well. Last thing is, they're getting rid of the 1:1 energy credits, but people with it will be grandfathered in. So now is the time for me.
I ran numbers all day yesterday and I think I have a solution that will benefit me, financially and for energy, on multiple fronts. Hopefully it works out!
With everything going the way it is, I really don't know why more are not putting solar up if they can afford it. It's like renting a house (no solar) with nothing to show for it at the end of the day vs buying a house (putting up solar) and you have something to show for it at the end of the day. Even if the house isn't as good as when you bought it, you at least have something to show for all that investment. Something with a value.
I just talked with a dude from Purelight. He's been cussed out and threatened. Just amazes me how short sighted people are and how they can get angry over something and they don't even really know why.
That should be interesting to see per country
We get 127 million km² worth of direct sunlight at any given time. At the highest efficiency, we can get some 200 W of electricity from each m² of that. That's some 25 million GW. We'll only run out of sunlight in 70000 years at this rate of growth!
Yes, the post is probably about GWp, in which case you should more than double that if using solar-tracking panels or quadruple that for static panels.
So if we kept on that in three years we could have enough to power the entire world? Assuming we started with absolutely zero today?