The sun is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old. It is basically a giant nuclear reactor. Every second of its existence it converts 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen into 695,000,000 tons of helium. This is nuclear fusion, and it produces the suns energy. The sun produces energy at 386 "yottawatts" per second. Which is 386 billion billion megawatts. The sun is expected to keep it up for about another 5 billion years. When I was researching nuclear power I found an interesting fact, there is said to be enough uranium in the earth that we could cost effectively extract 16,500 tons of it per year for 5 billion years before running out. So we have enough uranium in the earth to power ourselves for as long as the sun is expected to support life. And when you think about it, once the earth gets sucked into the sun there will be no wind or hydro-electric power either. So if nuclear power is not going to be called "renewable" then neither is solar. I prefer we all start using the term "not going to run out any time soon" energy.
www.nineplanets.org
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