The US and many other countries around the world are investing heavily in solar power as an energy source as part of an effort to shift to renewable energy sources and ditch fossil fuels. In order to accomplish that, there is going to have to be a massive expansion of solar infrastructure that will need to generate lots and lots of energy. According to a recent study published by the US Department of Energy, it hopes to produce 45% of all electricity via solar power. That will require generating 1,600 gigawatts of power.
This raises an important question: What is a gigawatt, exactly?
As we see an increasing shift toward solar and other renewable energy sources, understanding how this power is measured, generated and harnessed will be important. So let’s take a look at what a gigawatt is, how many gigawatts of power the US is currently generating, and how many it will need to generate in order to achieve its future goals.
What is a gigawatt?
A gigawatt is a unit of measurement of electrical power. For some context, a gigawatt is equal to 1 billion watts.
You’re probably more familiar with the measurement of watts in reference to lightbulbs. Check around your home and you’ll find bulbs in your lamps and lighting fixtures that likely range from 60 to 100 watts. While we sometimes think of this as how bright the bulb gets, it is actually a measurement of how much energy is required to power it. (Lumens is how the brightness of a bulb is measured.)
Solar panels generate watts of electrical power by absorbing sunlight through either photovoltaic panels or mirrors that work to concentrate solar radiation. This energy is then converted into electricity, which can be used to power everything from that lightbulb in your lamp to an entire power grid. According to the Department of Energy, it takes over three million solar panels to generate one gigawatt of power, which can be stored and dispensed as needed.
How much power is one gigawatt?
So what exactly does one gigawatt of power get you? It’s a whole heck of a lot of light bulbs, that’s for sure. Revisiting those 100-watt bulbs that are around your house, you could power about 10 million of those. Switch to LED lights, which have a much lower energy consumption, and you can power over 100 million of them.
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