Just to put things in perspective, it would take 20 of these (about 20 square miles of land) to equal the power generation of a new nuclear reactor. Keep in mind that that is only at peak power, as in a cloudless day in the middle of summer. Factoring in nights, winters, and clouds, the average power produced would be far lower.
There's no mention of the price of this solar farm, but if it's less than $50 million or so, it could be cost effective relative to nuclear.
Since you like taking into account ALL the externalities, let's not forget the fact that this will infuse money into more R&D in the future. There are Mavericks, Adopters and Followers. I think we know which one you are,
I don't doubt there is a market for this. There is always a need for additional peak power on sunny days. It's just that you can't count on solar to save the world.
Anyway, in response to Sasha S, its being designed by Cleantech America, a company that deals with photovoltaic panels.
"Keep in mind that that is only at peak power, as in a cloudless day in the middle of summer" - Like almost every day in CA.
"Factoring in nights, winters, and clouds, the average power produced would be far lower." - If we could turn off (or down) our nuclear reactors overnight, we would, so I don't see the problem with some of our power sources working that way automatically.
Unfortunately, the cost will surely be way higher than $50 million - with current technologies (which obviously keep coming down in price), it costs about $70million for a 10mw solar farm right now so that would put a ballpark cost of approx $500-600million for this one. Solar just isn't anywhere near cost effective versus any other common form of power however as many others have mentioned, there's more than the price tag to consider and a clean / renewable / low ongoing cost power solution is amazing IMO (although in real world, at 80mw, this is probably less than 0.01% of the areas power requirements so you'd need a whole lot more of these to smart making a dent)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cmonkey @ Jul 9th 2007 8:41PM
Just to put things in perspective, it would take 20 of these (about 20 square miles of land) to equal the power generation of a new nuclear reactor. Keep in mind that that is only at peak power, as in a cloudless day in the middle of summer. Factoring in nights, winters, and clouds, the average power produced would be far lower.
There's no mention of the price of this solar farm, but if it's less than $50 million or so, it could be cost effective relative to nuclear.
Nils @ Jul 9th 2007 9:01PM
Since you like taking into account ALL the externalities, let's not forget the fact that this will infuse money into more R&D in the future. There are Mavericks, Adopters and Followers. I think we know which one you are,
J
cmonkey @ Jul 9th 2007 9:32PM
I think you forgot the category of Realists.
I don't doubt there is a market for this. There is always a need for additional peak power on sunny days. It's just that you can't count on solar to save the world.
Anyway, in response to Sasha S, its being designed by Cleantech America, a company that deals with photovoltaic panels.
Ulysses @ Jul 9th 2007 11:17PM
"Keep in mind that that is only at peak power, as in a cloudless day in the middle of summer"
- Like almost every day in CA.
"Factoring in nights, winters, and clouds, the average power produced would be far lower."
- If we could turn off (or down) our nuclear reactors overnight, we would, so I don't see the problem with some of our power sources working that way automatically.
Mike @ Jul 10th 2007 9:55AM
Unfortunately, the cost will surely be way higher than $50 million - with current technologies (which obviously keep coming down in price), it costs about $70million for a 10mw solar farm right now so that would put a ballpark cost of approx $500-600million for this one. Solar just isn't anywhere near cost effective versus any other common form of power however as many others have mentioned, there's more than the price tag to consider and a clean / renewable / low ongoing cost power solution is amazing IMO (although in real world, at 80mw, this is probably less than 0.01% of the areas power requirements so you'd need a whole lot more of these to smart making a dent)