Can Form 8865 Percentage 2024

Music. Every year, the world uses 35 billion barrels of oil. This massive scale of fossil fuel dependence pollutes the earth, and it won't last forever. Scientists estimate that we've consumed about 40 percent of the world's oil, according to present estimates. At this rate, we'll run out of oil and gas in 50 years or so, and in about a century for coal. On the flip side, we have abundant sun, water, and wind. These are renewable energy sources, meaning that we won't use them up over time. What if we could exchange our fossil fuel dependence for an existence based solely on renewables? We've pondered that question for decades, and yet renewable energy still only provides about 13 percent of our needs. That's because reaching 100% requires renewable energy that's inexpensive and accessible. This represents a huge challenge, even if we ignore the politics involved and focus on the science and engineering. We can better understand the problem by understanding how we use energy. Global energy use is a diverse and complex system, and the different elements require their own solutions. But for now, we'll focus on two of the most familiar in everyday life: electricity and liquid fuels. Electricity powers blast furnaces, elevators, computers, and all manner of things in homes, businesses, and manufacturing. Meanwhile, liquid fuels play a crucial role in almost all forms of transportation. Let's consider the electrical portion first. The great news is that our technology is already advanced enough to capture all that energy from renewables, and there's an ample supply. The sun continuously radiates about 173 quadrillion watts of solar energy at the earth, which is almost 10,000 times our present needs. It's been estimated that a surface that spans several hundred thousand kilometers would be needed to power humanity at our present usage levels....