Tesla CEO Elon Musk underlined the potential of photo voltaic vitality by delving into what it may do for human life. The billionaire was repeating an concept he had shared method again in June 2022.
What Occurred: The quantity of photo voltaic vitality acquired by the Earth can be adequate to energy a civilization that’s 100 instances bigger than ours, Musk mentioned whereas quote-tweeting a tweet by considered one of his followers going by Twitter deal with @Rainmaker1973.
@Rainmaker1973’s tweet mentioned the world’s present demand for energy could possibly be happy by overlaying 1.2% of the Sahara Desert with photo voltaic panels, attributing the deduction to a theoretical calculation. He shared hyperlinks to 2 information tales that expounded on photo voltaic vitality’s potential.
A 2017 story carried by “Energy Know-how” entitled “The Sahara: a photo voltaic battery for Europe” detailed a small U.Ok. firm named TuNur, which utilized to the Tunisian authorities to start building of a 4.5 Gigawatt concentrated solar energy mission within the Sahara Desert. If profitable, the vitality generated could possibly be transported by underground cables to supply Europe with a brand new carbon-free, different baseload energy, in line with the article.
A latest Forbes story famous that TuNur and Elmed (a proposed 600 MW undersea high-voltage direct present interconnector) in Tunisia look to ship clear electrical energy to Europe by Italy. TuNur’s last funding resolution is due in 2024, it added.
See additionally: Greatest Photo voltaic Shares
How The Math Works: The second hyperlink shared by @Rainmaker1973 was to a 2016 Forbes story, which included a solution by Berkeley professor Mehran Moalem to a query on Quora. The professor mentioned the world’s vitality utilization, together with each renewable and non-renewable sources, in 2015 was 13,000 million tons of oil equal, or MTOE, translating to 17.3 Terawatts of steady energy.
If a 43,000 sq. miles space of the earth is roofed by photo voltaic panels, it could present greater than 17.4 TW energy. If the Nice Sahara Desert, which receives greater than 12 hours of daylight a day, is tapped, simply 1.2% of it’s adequate to cowl the vitality wants of the world. The entire space of the desert is 3.6 million sq. miles.
These trying to spend money on the way forward for photo voltaic know-how can select from quite a lot of ETFs, together with Invesco Photo voltaic ETF TAN and iShares World Clear Vitality ETF ICLN.
Learn subsequent: About 25% Of US Electrical energy Comes From Renewable Vitality Sources: Elon Musk Has One Phrase To Say About It
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