If we add the amount of solar energy that is absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere, land and oceans every year, we end up with approximately 3,850,000 EJ (exajoules or 10^18 joules). To put it in more understandable terms, this amount of energy is equivalent to  :  2.7 million earthquakes of the same size as the Tohoku earthquake in Japan (2011) – 40 000 times the total energy consumption in the United States – 8 000 times the total consumption in the whole world –  40% of the energy that is required to heat the entire volume of water we have on Earth by 1°Celsius. Every square meter of our planet receives around 1,366 watts of direct solar radiation.

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