Energy math

The math & sources

Every claim on Freeing Energy is backed by transparent, sourced calculations. Browse the numbers behind clean energy — and check our work.

Title	math code
Total number of installation firms for utility, commercial, and residential solar	m190
Total US installed solar for 2020 could power 19 million homes	m195
Local-scale solar produces as much energy as 5 nuclear plants	m194
Annual energy output of a 1 GW nuclear plant	m193
The rise of PCs caused the price of computing to fall 100 million times	m192
US coal ash waste could cover all of New York City under 9 feet of ash	m191
Total solar energy received by the earth is 201,480,000,000,000,000 kWh/ year	m181
Materials required to generate a MWh	m189
The annual global electricity consumption is 167,718 terawatt hours	m180
African countries where access to electricity falls below 40%	m188
The Apollo moon missions cost $152 billion	m186
The US Interstate highway system cost $548 billion to build over 40 years	m187
There will be 23,000 GWh of lithium-ion batteries by 2030	m184
Will solar, wind, or natural gas be cheapest in 2040?	m160
How many square miles of land are set aside to grow ethanol?	m173
An acre of solar is 73x more efficient than corn ethanol for cars	m170
How do retail electricity rates change as states adopt renewable energy?	m174
How many pounds of uranium ore are needed to generate a MWh in a nuclear plant?	m171
Is it cheaper to build residential rooftop solar or buy power from the grid?	m162
Is it cheaper to build commercial-scale solar or buy from the grid?	m161
What are the costs to install solar in residential, commercial and utility scale projects?	m108
The US uses an average of 3,600 gigawatt hours of electricity each night	m182
How does the toxicity of various power plant wastes compare?	m155
How does the cost of new solar plants compare to fully paid coal plants?	m159
What is the LCOE of new renewable, nuclear, and fossil fuel power plants?	m158
How does the intermittency of solar and wind affect storage requirements?	m157
How much water is withdrawn and consumed annually by electric power plants?	m156
How does water usage per gigawatt hour of generation compare between power plants?	m154
How many pounds of steel and concrete are used in a natural gas plant?	m153
How many pounds of concrete and other materials are used to build hydropower plants?	m151
How much metal and concrete is used in various power plants like solar and nuclear?	m150
How many pounds of steel and concrete are used in a geothermal plant?	m152
How many pounds of steel and concrete are used in a coal plant?	m149
How much concrete and steel is needed to build new wind turbines, measured by MWh?	m148
How many MWh of solar energy comes from a MW of solar panels?	m147
How many pounds of solar panels and racking are needed to generate a MWh of electricity?	m146
What is the average size in watts of modern solar panels (modules)?	m145
How much lead is used in solar panels per unit of electricity generated?	m144
How much lead is used in US solar panels each year?	m143
How much copper is used in US solar panels each year?	m142
How much steel and aluminum is used in US solar racks each year?	m141
How many birds are killed from electric power lines?	m140
How many birds are killed from wind turbines per kilowatt hour?	m139
How many pounds of uranium are needed to generated a MWh in a nuclear plant?	m125
How many pounds of mercury (Hg) come from burning coal?	m138
How many pounds of arsenic (As) compounds come from burning coal?	m137
How many pounds of a nuclear plant are needed to generated a megawatt hour of electricity?	m136
How many pounds of solar panels are needed to generated a megawatt hour of electricity?	m135
If solar panels are thrown away, how much landfill is required?	m134
How much CO2, SO2, methane and other emissions come from various power plants?	m133
How much carbon dioxide (CO2) is released from coal power plants?	m109
How much sulfur dioxide (SO2) comes from biomass power plants?	m131
How much nitrogen oxide (NOx) is released from biomass power plants?	m130
How much land is required for various electricity generation methods?	m129
How much land is needed to mine uranium ore for nuclear plants?	m128
How much land is needed for biomass plants to generate a gigawatt hour?	m127
How much carbon dioxide (CO2) released from burning natural gas?	m113
How much nitrogen oxide (NOx) is released from burning natural gas?	m116
How much sulfur dioxide (SO2) is emitted from natural gas power plants?	m117
How much land is used to strip mine the coal needed to generate a gigawatt hour?	m126
How much land does hydropower require to generate a megawatt hour?	m124
How much electricity does the average American use in their lifetime?	m123
Will electricity prices go up if rooftop solar takes off?	m122
Reduction in US electric utilities' revenue from distributed rooftop solar	m121
What are the fixed versus variable costs, as well as the profits, for US electric utilities?	m120
How much land is required for wind turbines to generate a megawatt hour?	m119
How much land does solar need to generate a megawatt hour?	m118
How many birds are killed from wind turbines and other sources?	m105
How much methane (CH4) is released during coal mining?	m114
How much ash is left over from burning a megawatt hour of coal?	m103
How much sulfur dioxide (SO2) comes from generating electricity with coal?	m110
How much nitrogen oxide (NOx) is released from burning coal?	m111
How much carbon dioxide (CO2) released from woody biomass power plants?	m132
How much uranium and thorium comes from burning coal?	m107
Math – How solar+battery can be cost competitive with the grid in 5-10 years	m104
How much methane (CH4) leaks from the drilling and distribution of natural gas?	m112
How much coal needs to be burned to generate a kilowatt-hour of electricity?	m102
Math – Solar jobs in manufacturing versus installation	m101