A Square Mile Of Solar Panels

All you need is a 100 by 100 mile patch in a deserted corner of arizona texas or utah or anywhere to more than power the entire usa.

A square mile of solar panels.

Conventional panels cost 2 per watt installed and produce 200 watts per square meter. If i use the figures from an existing solar thermal power plant ivanpah solar power facility i get a much larger figure. However most installers estimate solar costs by the amount of energy needed at 2 53 to 3 15 per watt before any tax credits or incentives. The cost of solar panels to power your house are 4 to 10 per square foot.

So very roughly if all us cars and trucks converted to electric vehicles it would take 5 3 square miles x 106 terawatt hours or 562 square miles of solar panels to power them all. Cost of solar panels per square foot. So 200 mw peak output and 400 million cost. This analysis goes.

Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. How many solar panels will i need for my 3 000 square foot house. Ivanpah solar power facility uses 4000 ha and is supposed to produce 1000 gwh annually. For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way.

So it would take 158 265 115 panels to cover this area. Below are cost estimates based on home size. Sunpower solar panels are the most efficient you can buy. Solar power is a gigawatt per square km.

5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh. How much energy does a solar panel produce. To understand how much solar power is produced per square foot it s helpful to know what solar panels are made of. 57 000 sq miles or a square 239 miles to a side.

For comparison the district of columbia s total land area is 68 square miles. 1 our maxeon solar cell technology combines a strong copper backing with ultra pure silicon and a light trapping glass surface that ultimately makes our panels 30. A solar pv facility must have an installed capacity of 3 300 mw and 5 400 mw to match a 1 000 mw nuclear facility s output requiring between 45 and 75 square miles. Depending on where you live the average 3 000 sqft house will need between 17 and 26 premium solar panels to supply 100 of its electricity needs.

Average capital utilisation is 18 8 in north america according to doe eia so 32 96 million. Now i m sure with a project this large you could get a discount. 100 square miles is 2 787 840 000 ft2.