Another fun fact. When I installed my PV array, I got the alignment of one of them wrong by 1 degree (from due south). I looked up how much power I lost from this mistake ... not much, about 1%. Then I used the same tool to check what would have happened if I had installed them facing due north. To my surprise: only 15% less power!
Is it? Oil/coal/gas reserves differ by factors of millions.
You only get 3 times less power/area of solar in Scotland than in California. That's pretty surprising (part of it is higher efficiency of photovoltaic cells in lower temperatures) and pretty great for our future.
For example it means once we switch from fossil fuels pumped out of the ground to fossil fuels generated with surplus renewable energy (and it's not that far - it will probably be profitable in most of the world in next decade) - there will be much less incentives for fossil fuel dictatorships.
