http://www.ck12.org Chapter 2. Numbers, Not Adjectives
huge dent in our totalenergyconsumption. To do more with PV, we need to step down to terra firma. The solar
warriors in figure 6.6 show the way.
Figure 6.7:A solar photovoltaic farm: the 6.3 MW (peak) Solarpark in Mühlhausen, Bavaria. Its average power per
unit land area is expected to be about 5W/m^2. Photo by SunPower.
Fantasy time: solar farming
If a breakthrough of solar technology occurs and the cost of photovoltaics came down enough that we could deploy
panels all over the countryside, what is the maximum conceivable production? Well, if we covered 5% of the UK
with 10%-efficient panels, we’d have
10%× 100 W/m^2 × 200 m^2 per person' 50 kW h/day/person.I assumed only 10%-efficient panels, by the way, because I imagine that solar panels would be mass-produced on
such a scale only if they were very cheap, and it’s the lower-efficiency panels that will get cheap first. The power
density (the power per unit area) of such a solar farm would be
10%× 100 W/m^2 = 10 W/m^2.This power density is twice that of the Bavaria Solarpark (figure 6.7).