[jedimastert]

> It's irrelevant when compared to the amount of energy from the sun. World energy consumption is roughly 5.4 * 10^20 Joules per year. This is 86% of the total energy from the sun that hits the Earth in an hour.

Man, every once in a while you remember the scale of energy when you're talking about the sun. Good lord.

[IanCal]

And that's just what hits us, a tiny spec 8 light minutes away.

It outputs our yearly energy usage in about a microsecond, and converts 4 million tons of mass to energy per second.

However, per unit volume, it's putting out energy about the same as a compost heap.