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can 100% renewable energy power the world - Coggle Diagram
can 100% renewable energy power the world
every year, the world uses 35 billion barrels of oil
global energy use is a diverse and complex system
we have infinite/ abundant amounts of sunlight, wind and water, these are renewable meaning they will not run out over time
scientists estimate that we have used 40 percent of this world's oil
this massive scale of fossil fuel dependence pollutes the earth
we will run out of oil and gas in 50 years
we will run out of coal in one century
what if we can replace our fossil fuel dependence with renewable sources?
we have pondered that question for years, yet renewable energy only powers about 13% of our needs.
this is because reaching one hundred percent will need renewable energy that is inexpensive and widely accessible.
electricity powers blast furnaces, computers and all manners of things in homes, businesses and manufacturing
liquid fuels play a crucial role in almost all transport.
luckily, our technology is advanced enough to capture all this energy form sunlight and is renewable. the sun radiates 173 quadrillion watts of solar energy constantly at the earth (which is almost 10,000 times our current needs)
a surface that spans several thousand kilometers would be needed to power the earth
to maximise efficiency, solar plants must be located in places with lots of sunshine all year round e.g. a desert.
we can harvest energy from other sources such as hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomasses, but they also have limits based on location and availability
theoretically if we connected power lines all over the world we would be able to power the world, but that comes with this (but it will be costly)
present day power lines lose about 6-8 percent of energy.
recently we have gotten better at making lithium batteries which are lightweight and have high energy density, but they carry very less energy
an efficient way to keep energy is to find a way to convert solar energy into chemical energy
there are many factors to this question, scientific, political and many more, but there is hope to be optimistic as scientific innovation continues to grow which means that sooner (or later) this may still be possible