> Now, how expensive - and how big - would an equivalent solar array be? Don't forget maintenance costs, including technicians. For an easy point of comparison

> Now, how expensive - and how big - would an equivalent solar array be? Don't forget maintenance costs, including technicians. For an easy point of comparison, there actually is an 18MW solar array under development in western Australia as part of phase 0 of the Yuri project [0] (the goal of that project is to produce hydrogen for ammonia production via electrolysis instead of steam methane reforming). This is apparently around 23 hectares (57 acres), at a cost of A$24-33m in capital expenditures, and A$0.5-1.5m in annual operating expenses [1]. For comparison, let's suppose diesel is A$2 / liter. 26,000 liters a day, for 365 days a year, is A$19 million, every year, just for fuel costs. Wait, you might argue, fuel prices are inflated this year. Okay, historically it might have been closer to A$1/L, for about A$10 million per year. Breakeven is therefore somewhere in the ballpark of 2-4 years, which is absurdly low for a project of this scale. [0] https://gateway.icn.org.au/project/4938/yuri-phase-0 https://gateway.icn.org.au/project/4938/yuri-phase-0 [1] Page 28-29 of https://arena.gov.au/assets/2020/11/engie-yara-renewable-hydrogen-and-ammonia-deployment-in-pilbara.pdf https://arena.gov.au/assets/2020/11/engie-yara-renewable-hyd... -- capex estimate is A$70m. If you remove the capex of building the H2 plant, you're left with A$33 million. If you just consider the PV component (34% of the overall capex estimate), then you get A$24m.