Area Required To Power Planet From Solar Panels

Surface area requirement for solar panels to power the world a 1 mw solar pv power plant takes up roughly 4 acres of space.

Area required to power planet from solar panels.

Area of solar panels depends on its efficiency. Total area 1 0 18 5 56 m 2. Dividing the global yearly demand of 198 721 800 000 000 by 400 kwh per square metre they arrived at 191 817 square miles 496 805 sq km as the area required to power the world with solar panels. Page 1 of 2 1 2 next.

That s more then the entire hydro generating capacity of the planet by orders of magnitude. A 1 mw solar pv power plant will require. Input your panel efficiency and solar plant capacity. 4 acres if it uses crystalline solar panels without trackers 6 acres if it uses thin film solar panels without trackers.

By another measure the unpopulated area of the sahara desert is over 9 million km which if covered with solar panels. Plugging these number in the above equation we get. We would need 74 16 million acres or about 115 625 square miles to build an 18 54 tw solar plant. Discussion in science started by nap aug 30 2009.

Surface area required to power the world from solar panels. 1000 watts total area x 1000 watts m 2 x 0 18. Based on your inputs we will calculate the roof area required for your system. Higher efficiency panels require lower area.

I you are going to install all the panels in one line you would need a space of approximately 1 m x 5 56 m each panel having a size of 1 m x 0 556 m on your rooftop.