While solar power grows at a rate of 60% each year, that’s nothing compared to the roughly 275% growth that Facebook experienced year-over-year, growing from about 175 million users last year to over 500 million this summer. So what if solar power grew at the rate that Facebook acquired new users? The folks at One Block off the Grid (1BOG) wanted to know, and they created this nifty infographic to help visualize it. The most startling finding? The world could be totally powered by solar energy in under five years.
Starting small, 1BOG shows that solar power would be available to 12,000 homes in its first day if it grew at the rate that Facebook did. Within 14 months the entire state of California would be solar powered – that means nothing would rely on coal or other energy sources. And after 4.7 years of this tremendous growth, the entire world could kick the coal and turn to solar power.
The infographic notes that, while Facebook-like growth might be a bit out of reach, those who have a neighbor who installed solar power are twice as likely to do it themselves. And in the United States, more solar power panels were installed last year than other power sources like coal.
1BOG is a service that combines the power of group buying – so popular these days with small daily deals for half price cupcakes – and solar energy. They use the power of a large group of consumers interested in solar power to negotiate low-cost solar panel installations. Available in dozens of cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Diego, 1BOG is an innovative solar social network.
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That would definitely upset OPEC and destabilize volatile regions of the world. All for it though myself. Tired of shipping trillions of dollars of revenue off to hostile countries.
Comment by Wayne Luke — August 19, 2010 @ 2:59 pm
Solar power isn't free.
Comment by Aaron Lewis — August 19, 2010 @ 6:05 pm
seriously guys ?
really obsessed with facebook !
Comment by itsright — August 19, 2010 @ 11:59 pm
Facebook exploded because it was free…Solar Systems are still priced too high in today's economy. Price goes down sales go up!
Comment by Jonathan — August 20, 2010 @ 12:14 am
Great Infographic. As the price of solar drops, we are going to see some major changes here in the US. I've been shopping it for years and can't wait until my budget and the price of installation finally meet up.
@Aaron – you are correct "solar power isn't free." I'm sure those who weren't aware really appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Comment by Chris Sully — August 20, 2010 @ 4:38 am
The price is definitely too high for most Americans but you can still do your part by purchasing solar-powered consumer goods. Check out http://e-solarproducts.com. They have a variety of cool solar gadgets that are really useful especially for camping trips!
Comment by Matt — August 20, 2010 @ 7:29 am
Solar is only expensive up front, because you are basically prepaying for power. Your electric bill is expensive, in fact in San Diego, SDGE just requested a 7% rate increase. Solar is a much better investment than paying your electric bill every month.
Comment by San Diego Solar Inst — August 20, 2010 @ 11:54 am
imagine that even solar power is free, that everybody get 5KW per household a day, and that at the end of the year the numbers get calculated, and whats left gets spread over each household again, so you can build up you 'powereconomomy'. This is al not realizable, but there must be a way to have power for free right? what if everyone in the future gets its own power plant in the backgarden, powered by your own green waste? i dont know, dont let them get monopoly about it.
Comment by Ciaran Hopkins — August 21, 2010 @ 1:44 am
[...] heat is turning up on the corporate Facebook page of solar panel maker Solyndra after declaring bankruptcy August [...]
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