A Square Mile Of Solar Panels

Below are cost estimates based on home size.

A square mile of solar panels.

Solar power is a gigawatt per square km. To understand how much solar power is produced per square foot it s helpful to know what solar panels are made of. 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. Now i m sure with a project this large you could get a discount.

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. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. Since it takes 21 250 square miles of solar for 4 petawatt hours or 4 000 terawatt hours each terawatt hour takes about 5 3 square miles per terawatt hour. If i use the figures from an existing solar thermal power plant ivanpah solar power facility i get a much larger figure.

How many solar panels will i need for my 3 000 square foot house. 57 000 sq miles or a square 239 miles to a side. This analysis goes. How much energy does a solar panel produce.

For comparison the district of columbia s total land area is 68 square miles. 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. So it would take 158 265 115 panels to cover this area. Depends on the details.

Sunpower solar panels are the most efficient you can buy. 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. 100 square miles is 2 787 840 000 ft2. The cost of solar panels to power your house are 4 to 10 per square foot.

5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh. Ivanpah solar power facility uses 4000 ha and is supposed to produce 1000 gwh annually. A trina 235w solar panel is 65in x 39in or 17 615 ft2. So 200 mw peak output and 400 million cost.

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. 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. Cost of solar panels per square foot.