Blue Sky Limousine

I saw something on TV recently that caught my eye. It said that scientists have calculated that the U.S. on average receives 10^25 units of sunlight energy per year. We only consume 10^20 units per year of energy from various sources.

This means that if we could perfect solar technology, we’d be set for years and years!

Although I did wonder, are trees and plants taken into account? I mean, if we harnessed all the energy we needed, would there be enough leftover to maintain the ecosystem? I think there would, given that if we did our job perfectly, and harnessed exactly 10^20 units, there’s still be 99.999% of the total energy left, right?