1 Watt = 1 unit of energy - the rate by which electricity is produced or used.
A small LED bulb 💡 in the lamp by your bedside might use 10 Watts.
What's a Kilowatt (kW)?
1,000 W = 1 kW
What's a Kilowatt hour (kWh)?
1 kW used for 1 hour = 1 kWh
1 Kilowatt can power a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours
What's a Megawatt (MW)?
1 MW = 1,000 kW = 1,000,000 W
What's a Megawatt Hour (MWh)?
1 MWh = 1,000 kWh
1 MWh can power an average USA home for about 6 weeks
What's a Gigawatt (GW)?
1 GW = 1,000 MW (1 billion Watts)
What's a Gigawatt hour (GWh)?
1 GWh = 1,000 MWh (1 million KWh)
1 GWh can power an electric car for 3 million miles--around Earth 120 times!
Or...
What's a Terrawatt (TW)?
1 TW = 1,000 GW (1 trillion Watts)
What is a Terrawatt hour (TWh)?
1 TWh = 1,000 GWh (1 billion kWh)
1 TWh can power 100 million homes for an hour, or the world's data centers (that power the Internet) for about 15 days.
***
Okay...time for some Einstein...
One hundred four years ago, Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect in metal. This has driven the solar energy revolution along with quantum mechanics.
All kinds of work...work...work...
and one discovery after another, we arrive at...
...1954, a practical solar ☀️ cell was born. Three guys at Bell Labs in New Jersey showed the world the first photovoltaic cell--sunlight charged a silicon cell and powered a small toy Ferris wheel and a solar-powered radio transmitter. They were Calvin Souther Fuller, Daryl Chapin, and Gerald Pearson. Within two years, the solar cell was appearing in consumer products.
More work...work...work...
...discover, discover, discover...
68 years later...Guess What!!!
2022, the world installed 1 terrawatt of solar power.
2024, the world installed 2 terrawatts of solar power.
As I write or early 2026, 3 terrawatts will be installed worldwide.
Every 15 hours, a gigawatt of solar panels is activated. Battery storage capacities and varieties increase rapidly.
Wind turbines follow closely behind solar.
Q: Which countries are leap-frogging over combustion energy and installing solar?
Ans: 3rd World countries.
Where do the solar panels come from?
Ans: China
I still have my solar-powered calculator purchased in 1986...
***
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!
***
***
