5 ms·
Capacity factor of solar is generally ~20%
by Chilko 2y ago
Capacity factor of solar is generally ~20%
- bryanlarsen 2y agoThese are grid scale installations in a desert with few clouds. It's possible they have a capacity factor over 30%.
- RandomThoughts3 2y agoSolar panels don’t like sands. It flies everywhere and the deposit partially shades the pane. You have to clean them to get back to peak efficiency. That’s why solar panels farm in desert are so complicated to run and why you don’t see more of them.
- seanmcdirmid 2y agoThere is a huge difference between a scrub desert and sand dune one. Xinjiang and Gansu is more scrub than sand, the Gobi is where all the dust comes from.
- sunshinesnacks 2y agoSeveral of the largest solar plants in the world are in deserts. Edit: I think that all of the top 5 largest are in deserts. Maybe more.
- RandomThoughts3 2y agoYes, because there is a lot of space there and the sun shines a lot. But they are not more efficient that installation outside of deserts which was the claim made by the comment I was replying to.
- sunshinesnacks 2y agoMaybe not more efficient, but there’s usually more solar resource in the desert, and the net is usually more electricity produced. See the executive summary linked at the bottom of this page: https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/utility-scale-solar-2023-edition https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/utility-scale-solar-2023-ed....
- morepork 2y agoChina's deserts are reasonably far north (latitudes of 30+ degrees), so I doubt they get a capacity factor that high