How Much Solar Panel To Power The World

Solar panels usually produce between 250 and 400 watts of power.

How much solar panel to power the world.

We receive a staggering 1 74 10 17 watts of energy from it. By early 2020 the leading country for solar power was china with 208 gw accounting for one third of global installed solar capacity. It has been estimated that given current solar panel efficiency rates of about 20 it would take us covering a landmass area the size of spain with solar panels in order to power the world in. You might think it s a simple math question.

By the end of 2019 a cumulative amount of 629 gw of solar power was installed throughout the world. If a solar panel is rated to produce say 360 watts and it s about 3 and feet wide by 5 and feet long then each square foot must produce about 20 watts right. Jorgustin s plan assuming a cost of 250 per panel would total around 767 billion a fraction of the united states government s 3 6 trillion expenditure in 2012 but an investment that. To put this into perspective this is about 10 000 times more than what humans need.

Here we are supposing a panel size of 350w for the calculated size of 18tw of solar plants. A total of 51 42 billion solar panels would be needed to power the entire world on solar energy.