Understanding the flow and use of energy within the biosphere and technosphere allows us to better understand the function of life, but also understand economic decisions and solutions. When most people think of solar power, they probably think of solar panels. However, most of the energy that we use comes from the sun, either directly or indirectly. Therefore a discussion of energetics should start with a discussion of the sun. 

The sun is a giant thermonuclear reactor, constantly fusing hydrogen into helium, and bathing the Earth in tremendous amounts of energy. The sun’s total power output is roughly 390 yottawatts. Even though the fraction of energy received by the Earth is trivial in comparison, it’s still a lot. After getting through the atmosphere, the solar irrradiance, averaged across the surface of the Earth, is about 340 watts per square meter.

How does any of that energy make its way into the technosphere? It happens in a variety of ways. Some of it is collected in a fairly direct fashion through solar panels. But most of it isn’t. A very large portion of the energy that fuels human interactions comes from photosynthesis. Even fossil fuels are a product of photosynthesis that happened many millions of years ago. The calories that we consume from plants and animals, all come from solar energy converted into chemical energy. Even wind energy is a form of solar energy, as it is the sun’s heat that fuels the wind.

Value

It’s very difficult to quantify value. Price is a lot easier to measure. However, price is a function of value, supply, and demand. So what is value? There are subjective valuations, which are often based on human psychology, and the value that we assign an object or action, at least in the short run, is very much a result of human psychology. However, using energetics we can define a more objective quantification of value: an object or action’s value is a measure of its ability to direct usable energy within the technosphere. The greater the ability to do so, the greater the value. 

One of the areas of interest in technoecology is discovering whether or not this measure of value relates to more subjective measures. While human assigned valuation is quite volatile, we conjecture that such subjective valuations tend towards the objective valuation that we have defined here. Regardless of whether this conjecture holds, we can say a lot about assigning a monetary figure to the total influx of energy into the technosphere.

Guestimation

Let’s say that 10% of the energy striking the surface ends up entering the technosphere (net). At 89,000 TW of power, that’s an increase of 8,900 TW of power entering the system. What’s the economic value of this power input? As of November 2019, the national average cost of a kilowatt-hour of electricity was about 13 cents. But that’s retail cost. And it’s electricity. Let’s say that the economic value of a kilo-watt hour is a mere 5% of that figure, or $0.0065 per kilowatt-hour. Some number crunching gives us a figure of $51 trillion per year, or about $5K per person at a population of 10 billion people.

Moreover, as we use the available energy to produce better technology, which can draw in more energy from the external environment and reduce inefficiencies, we are increasing this figure every year. In fact, it makes sense that those who are heavily involved in bringing in new sources of energy, and those who create new ways to utilize that energy, would end up profiting. Sometimes it works out that way, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Figures mainly come from a Solar FAQ compiled by Jeff Tsao, Nate Lewis, and George Crabtree.

Energetics, Consumption, and Life

Energetics is directly connected to life itself. The universe, as a whole, tends towards thermodynamic equilibrium. But life is a far from equilibrium condition. The universe as a whole tends towards increasing states of disorder. But life is a system where order and complexity increase. Organisms grow and reproduce, and create higher order systems made up of themselves. Life accomplishes this process through consumption, and all lifeforms are consumers. We consume thermodynamically rich energy, and convert it into order and complexity.

Further Reading

Exergy Theory of Value: Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of Economic Value Creation