the role of energy in our modern society

geteilt von: https://feddit.org/post/30083502

so as you all are aware of, we (human society) consume a shitload of energy. like, a lot

40 MWh /year (in germany) is 100 kWh a day or about 4 kW on average. for comparison: a human consumes about 100 W of chemical energy from food on average through the day.

to produce 40 MWh of electricity a year, you’d need 200 m² of solar panels assuming 1000 hours of sunlight /year at 200 Wp/m². so it’s actually important that the solar panels are somewhat efficient because otherwise you’d just waste a lot of space.

the same applies in nature. just like all machines require energy, so does all life. and that’s why energy metabolism should be the first chapter of any good book about the foundational concepts of biology :)