How much energy does the sun produce?

When we look at stars it's quite easy to start your rising just how much energy they can give off. Our closest star, the sun produces an astronomical amount of energy that we use renewably for solar power. The amount of energy that actually hits the earth from the sun is quite staggering. The amount of energy that the sun actually produces and throws into space is even more unbelievable.

At any moment of any day the sun is admitting roughly 3.86x10 to the power of 26 W of energy. The total output from our son is around 174 quadrillion watts of power and most of this gets pushed out in all directions across space. If we were able to produce 100% efficient solar cells an area the size of a backyard swimming pool would be able to store 288 kW of energy over six hours on a clear day. This is enough power to handle at least 10 times what the average US household uses in a single day.

Understanding the total amount of energy that the sun produces can put things in perspective with just how powerful stars are. Knowing how many stars are available in our galaxy alone represents the total amount of power that we could one day harness if we get capture technology up to speed. When we start to find more efficient ways of harnessing solar power and storing it we will be able to maximize the total amount of energy that the sun can produce. Solving problems in understanding more about how we could harness the sun's energy could help us to find more renewable sources of energy that are sustainable and cost-effective.

If you take a look at the night sky and consider that each one of those dim lights that you see could be responsible for powering the planet for years, we can start to see more on the incredible power that each star has.