Solar Panel Power Plants
How much area would solar panels that produce 3,300 MW cover?
The four nuclear power plants in Virginia produce about 3,300 megawatts in only a couple of acres. What area would be required to produce the same amount of power from solar panels? For the sake of this lets just talk about during the daylight hours.
The reactor could be underground then you could still use the space. What about night time, Batteries?
The other answer gave you a reasonable answer for a peak power of 3.3 GW. YOU said daylight hours only.
Now you want to talk 24 hours supply. You would need 3 to 5 times more solar power, so therefore 3 to 5 times more space. But batteries are not suitable to store this amount of power, so you would need perhaps pumped water storage, with a large reservoir, dams, and water turbines and generators and all of that, probably more expensive than the panels themselves.
But why 24 hour operation? most power is used during the daytime hours.
10 GW at $4000 per kW will cost 10000000 x $4000 or $40 000 000 000, $40 trillion dollars. Economies of scale will reduce that a lot, perhaps to $10 trillion dollars. A lot more than a nuclear plant.
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How Solar Energy Panels Work
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DH-3064 Solar Power Plant Photo Mugs DH-3064 Solar Power Plant 400km north of Adelaide in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia Largest solar power plant of its type in Australia supplying Wilpena Pound Resort, South Australia. Covers 2000 sq m (5 tennis courts) and cost 2.5 million dollars Don Hadden Please note that prints are for personal display purposes only and may not be reproduced in any way. contact details prints ardea tel a… |