How Many Acres Of Solar Panels To Power The Us

Of that energy enough power reaches the earth in one hour to power all of society for a year.

How many acres of solar panels to power the us.

Just 11 200 000 acres to generate 4 000 000. A megawatt of solar power plant requires about 5 acres of land. 2 75 tw or 2 750 000 mw would require 13 750 000 acres. According to a 2008 analysis by the national renewable energy laboratory supplying all of the united states electricity needs with photovoltaic solar energy would require roughly 0 6 percent of america s total land area or 1 948 square feet per person.

We can however hope for a cumulative installed capacity crossing the required number with plants spread throughout various states. It consists of 1 7 million solar panels spread out over 13 square kilometers or 3 200 acres in kern and los angeles counties california. Map courtesy of google maps. There s 1 8 billion acres of land in the usa so about 0 6 of our land is all it would take.

All told solar star produces 579 megawatts of energy enough to power about 255 000 homes. It s due to expand to be able to produce up to 18 mw of power but this plan is still in the works. For context that s about the size of 142 football fields or 4 times the size of central park. Las vegas nevada nellis solar power plant taking up 140 acres and consisting of more than 70 000 solar panels this 14 mw solar farm can supply 25 percent of the base s power.

Based on average solar production across the u s it would take about 21 250 square miles of solar panels to meet the country s electric needs. Solar would have to produce about 4 million gwh of electricity annually to provide enough energy to power the entire usa. The topaz solar farm in san luis obispo county california which ranks as one of the largest solar farms in the united states offers 550 megawatts and covers 4 500 acres. That gives around 8 2.

Therefore we can say that for every acre the plant produces an average of 0 357 gwh or 357 mwh of energy per year. At 2 8 acres per gwh then about 11 200 000 acres of land would give us what we need to produce the 4 000 000 gwh of solar power. So you re saying it would only take 0 6 of the surface area of the continental united states to power the entire country with renewable solar power.