I guess what I’m asking is does this process even create much? Plants just lay roots and stare at the sun; if they had a means to get up and move – how far could they get?
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The short answer is…virtually all of it, as far as life is concerned.
Except for a few obscure organisms that live around hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean, everything alive gets *all* it’s energy from photosynthesis, or from eating things that got their energy from photosynthesis.
All *your* energy comes from some plant somewhere photosynthesizing. You either ate plants, or you ate animals that ate plants (or possibly animals that ate other animals that eventually ate plants).
So everything any human has ever done, and anything any animal has ever done, in addition to everything the plants have ever done (carpeting the entire planet and oceans isn’t exactly a trivial feat) was powered by…photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is responsible for virtually all the energy in an ecosystem, because at the bottom of the nearly every food chain, its plants. Every animal you see owes its ability to live and move to energy created by plants.
Although it works, Photosynthesis in plants isn’t actually all the efficient. Only about 1-5% of the incoming sunlight that hits them is actually able to be utilized, which is partially because sunlight is so incredibly diverse in its wavelengths, so plants picked a small part of the spectrum and focused on that.
In regards to plants being able to move, its not so much the roots that hinder them, its that because photosynthesis doesn’t provide them enough energy to actually move around much. Basic movements we already see in some plants like the snapping of the Venus Fly Trap, the curling leaves of the Cape Sundew, or the rapid closing of the Mimosa’s leaves, those use a lot of the plant’s available energy reserves.
In general, photosynthesis converts about 3-6% of the light energy that reaches a plant into chemical energy. This means that for every 100 units of light energy that a plant absorbs, 3-6 units are converted into chemical energy in the form of glucose and oxygen.
However, some species of plants, such as certain types of algae and C4 plants, are more efficient at converting light energy into chemical energy. These plants can convert up to 20% of the light energy they receive into chemical energy.
The amount of energy produced by photosynthesis in the form of chemical energy (glucose) can be measured in kilocalories (kcal). One kilocalorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one liter of water by one degree Celsius.
A rough estimate of the energy consumption of a 2 feet tall cannabis plant during its growth phase can be calculated by considering that a mature cannabis plant can consume about 150 watts per square meter of foliage (around the same as the energy consumption of a lightbulb) and assuming an average foliage area of about 1 square meter. This would give an estimated energy consumption of 150 watts x 1 square meter = 150 watts per plant.
When it comes to converting the energy consumption to kcal, 1 watt is equivalent to 1 joule per second, and 1 kcal is equivalent to 4184 joules. So, 150 watts is equivalent to 150 x 4184 = 632600 joules, or 632.6 kcal.
as a rough estimate, here are some examples of how much exercise it might take for a healthy person to burn 632.6 kcal:
Walking at a moderate pace for about 4.5 hours
Running at a moderate pace for about 1 hour and 45 minutes
Cycling at a moderate pace for about 2 hours and 30 minutes
Swimming for about 1 hour and 45 minutes
Dancing for about 3 hours
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