Climate Number: 122 Petawatts
What do ceiling fans and tropical cyclones have in common? How about ocean currents and the microwaves that heat your food? Both ceiling fans and tropical cyclones have kinetic energy – energy that an object possesses due to its motion. Ocean currents have kinetic energy as well, and microwaves are powered by electricity that is ultimately generated by the kinetic energy of the turbines that spin at the local power plant. The energy in both weather systems and your power bill can be measured in watts (your power bill is in kilowatt-hours). The energy that drives the world’s weather ultimately originates in the energy the Sun sends to Earth. Air and water are heated as they circulate, giving them a certain amount of kinetic energy. The total amount of energy flowing through the Earth’s climate in the form of wind, ocean currents, atmospheric water vapor, the heat in the soil, etc., is estimated to be 122 Petawatts, or 122 x 1015 Watts.
For Comparison: It would take over 100 million 1,200 Megawatt nuclear power plants to produce 122 Petawatts worth of power. For further comparison, a 1,200 Megawatt plant can power about 650,000 American homes.
Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
Source: Trenberth, KE. “An imperative for climate change planning: tracking Earth’s global energy.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 1 (2009): 19-27.
