The Agency anticipated that by 2030 the world will require 16.9 TW of power due to the increase in population and living standards overall, with about 2.8 TW in United States. The planned mix of sources would be similar to today’s, and would largely depend on fossil fuels. If, on the contrary, the planet was totally moved by WWS, there would be no burning of fossil fuels or biomass, and there would be a saving in the consumption of primary energy. Global energy demand would be reduced to just 11.5 TW, and the demand for EE UU would be 1.8 tw. This decrease occurs because, in the majority of cases, the electrification is a more efficient way of using energy.
For example, only between 17% and 20% of the energy in gasoline is transformed into mechanical energy to move the vehicle (the rest is wasted as heat), while 75 to 86 percent of the electricity delivered by your battery to an electric vehicle, is transformed into movement. Also consider that in the production of electricity by means of thermal power plants, more than 60% of the fuel energy is lost as heat that goes to the atmosphere. The same applies to transport where all engines are thermal.Although demand increased to 16.9 TW, WWS sources could provide this energy; in fact the potential of energy supply renewable is enormous. Detailed studies by us and others indicate that the potential energy of the wind, in the world, is approximately 1,700 TW. Solar, photovoltaic and solar thermal, would reach 6,500 TW. It is clear that the wind and Sun in the open seas, on high mountains and in all protected regions would not be available. If we subtract these areas and others where there is little wind, we still be with 40 to 85 TW for wind and 580 TW for solar energy, well above any future demand.