As climate scientist Gavin Schmidt at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies pointed out on Bluesky, the energy content before use of all the fuels used worldwide in 2024 was 186,000 terawatt-hours. He said Earth receives 6000 times as much energy as that each year.

Moreover, Schmidt said, if you take into account the fact 60 per cent of fossil fuel energy is lost while converting it to useful power, then Earth receives 18,000 times as much energy from the sun as would be needed to meet the current energy consumption.

Of course, existing solar panels capture only around 20 per cent of the sun’s energy, and you can’t put them everywhere. But a 2021 report by Carbon Tracker estimated that 0.3 per cent of the world’s land area – yes, just the land – would be needed to meet the current energy demand from solar alone, which is less than the current land footprint of fossil fuel infrastructure. In principle, solar and wind could supply more than 100 times the current global energy demand, according to the report.

Why solar power is the only viable power source in the long run | New Scientist