How Many Acres Of Solar Panels To Power The Us

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.

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. We can however hope for a cumulative installed capacity crossing the required number with plants spread throughout various states. For context that s about the size of 142 football fields or 4 times the size of central park. 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.

A megawatt of solar power plant requires about 5 acres of land. When it comes to solar energy per acre a photovoltaic solar plant which on average produces 1 gwh per year will require around 2 8 acres of land. 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. 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. Solar would have to produce about 4 million gwh of electricity annually to provide enough energy to power the entire usa. The yellow square is approximately 21 000 square miles. Therefore we can say that for every acre the plant produces an average of 0 357 gwh or 357 mwh of energy per year.

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. Just 11 200 000 acres to generate 4 000 000. 2 75 tw or 2 750 000 mw would require 13 750 000 acres. 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.

All told solar star produces 579 megawatts of energy enough to power about 255 000 homes. That gives around 8 2. 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.