The solar energy that hits the Earth is 1,353 Watts/sq. meter or 429.7 Btu/sq. ft./ hour, which is called the Solar Constant.
Approximately 120,000 TW (terrawatts) of solar energy strikes Earth every day. That is 12,000,000,000,000,0000 joules per second! More energy hits the Earth from the Sun in one hour than the whole world uses all year. (It’s roughly estimated that he world uses 15 terrawatts of power per year.) So, in One HOUR, the sun imposes 8000 times the amount of energy that all of humanity uses in one YEAR. Are you comprehending that?
It may surprise you to learn that more than enough solar energy per square foot hits the earth to provide a solution for the entire energy consumption of the earth. This is measured in watt hours by engineers and scientists. The earth has 197 million square miles of surface which includes the surface of the oceans.
The solar energy reaching the earth is 12,211 gigawatt/hour. Using the measurement of the earth's surface and the number of hours in a year, scientists conclude the earth receives 82 million quads of Btu energy from the sun each year. A "quad" is one quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy.
The total solar energy that hits the earth each and every year is enough to provide 20,000 times the power used by the entire human race.
The bottom line is this: The numbers just don’t work out for humanity to have an effect on global temperatures. It just can’t happen. Everything depends on the Sun, not on mankind. We, as scientists and engineers might be able to calculate the effect. But, it will never be measureable. We don’t have the technology to measure numbers that small.
David R. Jones, PE - NSPE
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