Abstract
Many but not all energy and environmental issues are believed to be consequences of the huge consumption of carbon-based fuels by humanity. This study found that the thermal energy released in 2006 by the complete combustion may be up to 4.84 × 1020 joules. This thermal energy contributes about 14% of the total thermal energy forcing in the atmosphere and ocean. Not only greenhouse gases but also the thermal energy released by fossil fuel burning needs to be considered in climate change studies. Solar energy is a promising clean energy source for solving the issues in energy shortage. We have studied solar energy resources at the Earth's surface and propose eight areas for potential solar power plants. The proposed sites are located in deserts in Southwest Asia, China, Australia, Southern South America, United States and Mexico. We calculate that 10% (assuming a conversion efficiency of 10%) of the solar energy resource over the eight sites is 18 times larger than current global energy consumption. If we could construct a solar energy network as an international cooperative project or store daily solar energy for use at night time, these eight sites could supply 24-hour electric power every day for the whole world. A more realistic approach to generate electricity at night and during cloudy days would be to store solar heat energy for use on demand.