Solar Snippets

• Solar is the original form of all energy on earth.
  • All life (including the agriculture that feeds us) relies on solar energy
  • All fossil fuel is in fact stored solar energy representing the work of plants capturing sunlight millions of years ago.
  • The amount of solar energy that falls on the Earth dwarfs the energy obtained from fossil fuels
• Texas is the leader in potential solar resources (based on availability of the resource and potential users)
• Americans spend ten cents of every consumer dollar on energy
• Not only does natural lighting in buildings reduce lighting, heating, and cooling costs, it also makes people more productive and helps them feel better with fewer sick days. Schools that use natural daylight consistently show higher test scores.
• The average all-electric home in Austin uses 18,838 kwh of electricity per year. This releases in to the atmosphere:
  • 255 pounds of sulfur dioxide
  • 99 pounds of nitrogen oxide
  • 9 pounds of particulates
  • 10.5 tons of carbon dioxide
• This results in a fuel consumption of
  • 8600 pounds of coal
  • 47,000 cubic feet of natural gas
  • 15,500 gallons of power plant cooling water
• A 2000 square foot home in Austin might typically use 1000 kWh to run central air conditioning in August. During this month, over 36 times this amount in solar energy falls on the house. Most of the unwanted heat that enters the house comes from solar gain through windows.
• Owners of-well built passive solar homes in Texas report that they spend almost nothing on winter heating.
• Less than 1/10th of 1% of homes nationwide are passive solar homes.
• Using solar energy both passively (in our home designs and in certain heating processes) and actively (making electricity) is a natural, cleaner way to live on the earth.
• The average temperature of the sun is 10,000 degrees F. Energy output of the sun requires mass to be burned at the rate of 4.1 million tons per second. Total mass of the sun (a small to medium-sized star) is 2,200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons, so it decreases in mass at a rate of 1/1,700,000,000,000 of a percent per year.
• "We are drilling deeper but are we finding more oil? In the United states during the early 1930s, about 250 barrels of recoverable oil were found per foot drilled. By the 1950s, this figure had decreased to about 40 barrels a foot, and by 1981, it was down to 6.9 barrels per foot. Oil producers in the Untied States are drilling deeper and finding less oil per foot drilled." - Youngquist - Geodestinies
• If the population doubles, and everything else remains the same, pollution will double and consumption of resources will double.