Showing posts with label white house budget summary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label white house budget summary. Show all posts

Monday, February 15, 2010

Putting that number in perspective

Recapping...
Saving 10% of energy used in buildings = ~$676B if you tried to replace it with solar PV.

According to the White House Budget Summary for 2010:
  • The US Military Budget is ~$707B. That's about 20% of the entire US budget [or about 41% of entire world spending on military].
  • Corporate income tax revenues are projected to be ~$179B. Only ~26% of what you'd need.
  • The only other two income line items of equivalent magnitude are:
    • Personal income taxes (~$1051B)
    • Social Security payroll taxes (~$683B) 
Looked at another way: If you spent the ENTIRE GDP of the US (~$14Trillion) at trying to replace the entire energy usage of the US (3297TWh) with solar PV, it would take ~7.9 months of spending (65% of GDP).
To put this number in perspective, the US Military Budget is 4.8% of GDP. That's ~17 days of spending.

Not that it's realistic or even correct, but can you imagine the entire US economic output focused on nothing but solar for almost 2/3 of a year?