Amount Of Solar Panels Needed To Power The World

As of 2020 there are at least 37 countries around the world with a cumulative pv capacity of more than one gigawatt.

Amount of solar panels needed to power the world.

Now if we cover an area of the earth 335 kilometers by 335 kilometers with solar panels even with moderate efficiencies achievable easily today it will provide more than 17 4 tw power. This is roughly equal to the area of spain. And as the report points out if this. According to the analysis we would need around 1 1 million square kilometers of solar panels to power the whole earth or an area the size of south africa.

Dividing the global yearly demand by 400 kw h per square meter 198 721 800 000 000 400 and we arrive at 496 804 500 000 square meters or 496 805 square kilometers 191 817 square miles as the area required to power the world with solar panels. How do we arrive at this number. We receive a staggering 1 74 10 17 watts of energy from it. By the end of 2019 a cumulative amount of 629 gw of solar power was installed throughout the world.

Consumes about 4 petawatt hours of electricity per year we d need about 13 600 000 acres or 21 250 square miles of solar panels to meet the total electricity requirements of the united states for a year. Assuming this power rating we would need to divide 2 75 tw by 350w which gives us the gigantic number of 7 85 billion 7 857 142 857 to be precise panels required. According to a graduate thesis by technical university of braunschweig student nadine may the number of solar panels needed to supply the entire world s energy needs would fill just 25 000 square. To put this into perspective this is about 10 000 times more than what humans need.

The yellow square is approximately 21 000 square miles. A total of 51 42 billion solar panels would be needed to power the entire world on solar energy. It can be turned into reality. Map courtesy of google maps.

This number does look intimidating but with a large number of solar companies in u s. Compare solar quotes on the energysage marketplace customized to your property and energy needs. Here we are supposing a panel size of 350w for the calculated size of 18tw of solar plants. The number of panels you need for your house depends on factors like location and panel performance.