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The problem is that he never defines if we're talking about average power or peak power (we have to assume on or the other--and you what happens when you assume). When you're running the microwave and the air conditioner while your wife is drying her hair, that's not the same as at night when you're asleep and everything but the refrigerator is off; its probably orders of magnitude different. 11,000 watts is a hell of a lot of power (its a little less than 15 hp, for all you anglophiles). But even if 11,000 is our average power, its not really an issue--if we can extract energy from the sun efficiently. The amount of energy that falls on the Earth every day is essentially infinite compared to our usage. There is no reason why the sun can't support 7 billion blue whales.
Either way, there is no way a science journalist should make such a grievous error; it renders his article misleading to most of his readers, and nonsense to the rest.