The exponential growth curve (green) shows the growth rate of Facebook (since 2004) applied to the global solar industry. The y-axis depicts the additional terawatts (TW) of solar energy generating capacity that would be added over the next 10 years (broken out into months on the x-axis).
Facebook recently passed 500 million users. If the growth rate of the world’s largest and fastest growing social network could be applied to solar, it would only take 4.7 years to power the entire world with solar energy.
While home solar is no social network, it’s picking up speed. We recently found that if you have a neighbor who installed solar panels you’re twice as likely to install them yourself. On a national scale, more solar power was installed in the United States last year than conventional power sources like coal, gas, and nuclear.
August 18th, 2010 at 12:13 PM
[...] of Vermont within just 15 days. Within 14 months, all of California would go solar. You can see the entire thought-provoking graphic over on the One Block Off the Grid Web site. Of course, the uptick of solar is much slower than [...]
August 18th, 2010 at 2:55 PM
[...] One Block off the Grid (1BOG) has just posted a neat infographic that envisions what it would be like if solar panel installs followed the same trajectory as [...]
August 20th, 2010 at 3:00 AM
The fact that you pointed is very interesting but also, a little bit sad.
I was wondering, if this “world energy coverage” takes the energy used by transportation in the account… If so, that would create a huge difference in our lives.
August 20th, 2010 at 3:03 AM
[...] What if Solar Power grew as fast as Facebook http://1bog.org/blog/what-if-solar-power-grew-as-fast-as-facebook-infographic/ [...]
August 20th, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Hi Ege-
I’m Charlie, and I helped put together the research behind this infographic. Unfortunately our numbers only account for solar replacing the projected installed electric capacity of the globe. As you can see from the rapid growth rate, solar could likely replace the demands of the transportation sector shortly after meeting the world’s electricity needs, but we steered away from making oil/solar comparisons because we were dealing with installed electrical capacity (not generation), a metric which doesn’t translate easily to oil consumption.
Hope this helps!
September 12th, 2010 at 2:03 PM
Does the increase in facebook correlate with the increased energy used by computers being left on 24/7? Or does use of the internet imply less dead tree mail and fewer trips to the store?