The issue of security of supply is now at the top of the energy policy agenda. Concern is focused both on price security and the security of physical supply. At present around 80% of global energy demand is met by fossil fuels.The unrelenting increase in energy demand is matched by the finite nature of these sources.The regional distribution of oil and gas resources also does not match the distribution of demand. Some countries have to rely almost entirely on fossil fuel imports.The downloadable maps provide an overview of the availability of different fuels and their regional distribution.
Nature offers a variety of freely available options for producing energy. It is mainly a question of how to convert sunlight, wind, biomass or water into electricity, heat or power as efficiently, sustainably and costeffectively as possible.
On average, the energy in the sunshine that reaches the earth is about one kilowatt per square metre worldwide. According to the Research Association for Solar Power, power is gushing from renewable energy sources at a rate of 2,850 times more energy than is needed in the world today. In one day, the sunlight which reaches the earth produces enough energy to satisfy the world’s current power requirements for eight years. Even though only a percentage of that potential is technically accessible, this is still enough to provide just under six times more power than the world currently requires.
The theoretical potential identifies the physical upper limit of the energy available from a certain source. For solar energy, for example, this would be the total solar radiation falling on a particular surface.
This is derived from the annual efficiency of the respective conversion technology. It is therefore not a strictly defined value, since the efficiency of a particular technology depends on technological progress.
This takes into account additional restrictions regarding the area that is realistically available for energy generation.Technological, structural and ecological restrictions, as well as legislative requirements, are accounted for.
The proportion of the technical potential that can be utilised economically. For biomass, for example, those quantities are included that can be exploited economically in competition with other products and land uses.
This limits the potential of an energy source based on evaluation of ecological and socio-economic factors. The accompanying resource maps show the regional distribution of the estimated energy that can be recovered and utilised.The calculations were carried out based on a global grid with a resolution of 0.5° longitude and latitude.The resulting potential is specified as average power density per surface area or per tilted module/converter area, so that the unit of measurement is always ‘output per area’.
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