11/6/2020 Total Primary Energy Supply

Total Primary Energy Supply

— From Sunlight

Sunlight hitting the dark discs could power the whole world: If installed in areas
marked by the six discs in the map, solar cells with a conversion efficiency of only 8 %
would produce, on average, 18 TW electrical power. That is more than the total power
currently available from all our primary energy sources, including coal, oil, gas, nuclear,
and hydro. The colors show a three-year average of solar irradiance, including nights
and cloud coverage.

Total primary energy supply

The total primary energy supply (TPES) is the sum of all energy resources world wide, like coal, oil, gas,
nuclear, and hydro. These resources are converted into gasoline, natural gas, electricity, and many other
energy carriers. In 2007, the TPES was 504 Exajoule (EJ) or, on average throughout the year,
16 Terawatt (TW). The blue line in the graph below shows how the TPES has developed in the last
decades.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that by 2030 the average TPES will be 23 TW based on
current policies (red line), or 19 TW if policies currently under consideration will be introduced (green
line). [1]

Harvesting sunlight

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11/6/2020 Total Primary Energy Supply
The energy of sunlight reaching the surface of the earth is more than 5,000 times the TPES. It is
available directly as sunlight, as wind due to temperature differences, or as hydropower from rainfall of
evaporated water. Several routes exist to directly convert sunlight into useful energy:

Plants (via photosynthesis) => Biomass (low efficiency, needs water and soil)
Solar thermal => Heat, Mechanic work (efficient, complex structures)
Photovoltaics => Electricity (efficient, expensive)

Required land areas

If the TPES was to be generated entirely from sunlight, a certain amount of the earth's surface would be
needed for capturing. The size of that area largely depends on the efficiency of the conversion
technology. An example with a conversion efficiency of 8 % is shown in the figure at the top of this
page: Six discs, each large enough to produce an average power output of 3 TW, are distributed across
the world in deserts, areas that have plenty of sunlight and little population. The desert locations, their
sizes, the average sunlight intensity, and the required areas are listed in the following table:

Desert size Required area Irradiance

Location / Desert
km2 [2] km2 W / m2
Africa, Sahara 9,064,960 144,231 260
Australia, Great Sandy 388,500 141,509 265
China, Takla Makan 271,950 178,571 210
Middle-East, Arabian 2,589,910 138,889 270
South America, Atacama 139,860 136,364 275
U.S.A., Great Basin 492,100 170,455 220

Distributed energy
While this example visualizes required land areas, it is better, in many cases, to generate energy closer to
where it is needed. Roof tops of buildings and small solar farms are such places, saving transmission
costs and, by interconnection, balancing periods of less sunshine.

Map data
The map at the beginning of this page, showing the spatially resolved solar irradiance, is based on an
algorithm developed by Bishop and Rossow, [3] using data made available through the International
Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP), [4] which provides calibrated data collected by geostationary
weather satellites around the world. The solar irradiance shown is a three year average from 1991 to
1993 and provides the total irradiance in a grid with 2.5° spacing in lattitude and longitude.

All data points are plotted in orthogonal lattitude and longitude coordinates. In consequence, distances,
areas, and angles are increasingly distorted towards the poles. The coastline overlay was obatined from
the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). [5]

Further reading
The Wikipedia article about Solar Energy has a thorough discussion of this topic:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy

References
[1] International Energy Agency (IEA). "Key World Energy Statistics 2009." http://www.iea.org/

[2] Map of World Deserts. http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-desert-map.htm

[3] J. K. B. Bishop and W. B. Rossow. "Spatial and temporal variability of global surface solar
irradiance." J. Geophys. Res. 96, 16839 (1991).

[4] International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). http://isccp.giss.nasa.gov/

[5] National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), NOAA Satellite and Information Service, Coastline
Extractor. http://rimmer.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/coast/

Matthias Loster, 2010

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