Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, 2021a

13 Solar <strong>Energy</strong> 217
0 50 100 150 200
PV power/person (W)
Figure 13.19: Per capita photovoltaic power
production by state, in Watts per person.
0.08 0.13 0.18 0.23 0.28
PV capacity factor
Figure 13.20: Photovoltaic capacity factors
by state. While we see lots of darker green,
it’s because everybody has similarly low
numbers, due to unavoidable nighttime <strong>and</strong>
low sun angles. Somebody tell Wyoming,
North Dakota, <strong>and</strong> Alabama to get with the
program!
more poorly on this measure. Alaska clocks in just over 0.1, mapping to
about 2.5 hours per day, on average.
installed average % of all global share
Country (GW p ) (GW) energy (%)
China 175 ∼18 1.2 27
U.S. 62 10.6 0.9 16
Japan 56 6.5 3.5 10
Germany 46 5.0 3.3 7.5
India 27 4.1 1.5 6
World 510 67 1.5 100
Table 13.3: Top five global producers of PV
power in 2018, accounting for two-thirds of
the world’s total production [92, 93]. The installed
PV corresponds to peak watts (W p ),
or production in full overhead sun.
Globally, two-thirds of the photovoltaic capacity is represented by five
countries, shown in Table 13.3. Note that delivered power is significantly
lower than installed capacity because of the low capacity factor for
solar.
13.7.1 Pros <strong>and</strong> Cons of Photovoltaics
Before advancing to solar thermal generation, let’s summarize the major
advantages <strong>and</strong> disadvantages of solar photovoltaics. First, the good
stuff:
◮ PV taps into a super-abundant resource—the only renewable that
has such a margin;
© 2021 T. W. Murphy, Jr.; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Lic.;
Freely available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/energy_ambitions.