3 ms·
His solar calculations IIRC were off by a factor of 10 in terms of what amount of energy could be extracted from a given piece of land. I do not have the book n
by newyankee 5y ago
His solar calculations IIRC were off by a factor of 10 in terms of what amount of energy could be extracted from a given piece of land. I do not have the book now otherwise I could've pointed it out. I think he was calculating the footprint of different forms of energy. Thumb rule is that at 20% efficiency a PV panel can get 200 Wp energy per sq m which translates to 200 MW per sq km. Leaving aside space for equipment, gaps, roads etc one can easily have a thumb rule of 100 Mw peak per sq km. I believe his book had this calculation as 10-20 MW per sq km.
This assumes 1 KW peak irradiance. Off course things will change based on latitude, season etc and one has to adjust for these factors however Solar is a no brainer in tropical and temperate climates alike at this point in my opinion.
- credit_guy 5y agoHe states 5-20 w/m2 (same as MW/km2) with a footnote that the theoretical one is 100 w/m2 but noone has achieved that yet.
- newyankee 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhadla_Solar_Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhadla_Solar_Park This has a ~ 40 MW/ sq.km output with a lot of it still being open space for different reasons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamuthi_Solar_Power_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamuthi_Solar_Power_Project This one has ~ 64 MW/ sq km output https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Mountain_Solar_Facility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Mountain_Solar_Facility This one in US seems to be about ~ 53 MW/ sq km So definitely he is purposely understating the potential of solar. Because it does not include future growth of tandem solar cells (Si + perovskite) taking it to more than 25-30% efficiency, or the fall in costs if they continue (albeit at a slower pace). Co-located Wind & solar power plants at suitable sites can be even more efficient with their reliability and capacity factors increasing if batteries added to the mix.
- credit_guy 5y agoYou are talking about peak power or capacity. He is talking about average, or generation. He explains the difference later in the chapter.