How Much Solar Panel To Power The World

How do we arrive at this number.

How much solar panel to power the world. To put this into perspective this is about 10 000 times more than what humans need. 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. By the end of 2019 a cumulative amount of 629 gw of solar power was installed throughout the world. The actual output you see depends on factors like shading orientation and sun hours.

You might think it s a simple math question. 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. 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. Solar panels usually produce between 250 and 400 watts of power.

By early 2020 the leading country for solar power was china with 208 gw accounting for one third of global installed solar capacity. Here we are supposing a panel size of 350w for the calculated size of 18tw of solar plants.