Tapping The Sun
"MORE ENERGY—in the form of sunlight—strikes Earth in one hour than all of the energy consumed by humans in an entire year."
It's a staggering statistic and just one of the facts that Nathan S. Lewis lists when he makes the case for the importance of solar energy research. Ready with data and calculations to bolster his argument, Lewis, a chemistry professor at California Institute of Technology, runs down the list of alternatives to fossil fuels—nuclear, wind, hydroelectric, biomass, and geothermal—and argues that the sun is the only viable and renewable source capable of satisfying humanity's great thirst for energy. Currently, on a global scale, energy usage is on the order of 13 terawatts (13 trillion W or 13 trillion joules per second), of which roughly 85% is generated by burning fossil fuels.