I’d like to point out an error in the June 20 edition of Space News.
In the article “Go Green, NASA” [page 19], the author states that the daily Earth solar energy influx is “about 89 terrawatts,” in contrast to total Earth energy consumption of around 15 terrawatts.
These ratios seemed very unlikely to me, as they indicate that the Earth energy consumption is roughly one-sixth of the total energy influx from the Sun.
Referring to the website http://frontierzero.com/graphs/Solar.htm, it seems that the daily Earth solar energy influx is about 89,000 terrawatts. This would seem to me much more likely than the ratio of 89 to 15.
Boyd Wells,
Houston