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@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works

2026-09-17 15:47 UTC

“energy is practically infinite with solar power” No it isn’t. On Earth’s surface, sunlight is intermittent. Tall objects such as trees interrupt it, you’ll get to produce a small fraction of the power you expect for a few hours in the morning and evening and full power for about 4 hours in the mid-day. You need to figure out how to use it while you’ve got it, or store it for later. That gets bulky and expensive real quick.

Replies (1)

  • @BlaestEgnen@feddit.dk 2026-09-18 06:31

    Considering our current energy consumption, we need to capture about an hour of the Sun’s energy being intercepted by Earth. There’s 8760 hours in a year, so if we can intercept one 8760th part (~0.0114%) of the energy thrown our way. We can power our current demand levels, sure it would require some massive batteries But it’s not impossible to think the tech being able to develop into energy mining from the surface of the ocean. Which covers 70% of the entire surface and only experiences shade through clouds. Assuming solar could capture 10% of the energy concentrated at their location, we’d basically have energy covered for decades if we plastered 1% of our surface with it. Or 1.43% of the surface of our oceans. That would allow us to consume 8.7 times more energy than today. For reference, the silicon cells we use today capture in the ballpark of 15-22% of the sunlight they receive. So getting to an average of 10% is possible.

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