PV Gap

Charles Said:

92 square acres of Ausra solar panels can power the intire country (with power lines and grids updated.Tell Me

We Answered:

The generally accepted value of solar energy hitting the earth is 1000 W/m². That's 1 kW per square meter.

92 acres is 372,307 square meters. At 100 percent efficiency, this can provide 372,307 kW or 372 MW.

One moderate sized coal fired generating plant is around 500 MW. The Hoover Dam produces 2080 MW, nearly six times your 92 acre solar panel farm.

Modern solar cells are only about 30 percent efficient at this time. That drops the electric output of your solar array to around 100 MW.

Also remember that the daily peak sunlight hours are limited and will have less than 8-hours of productive sunshine on most days.

As far as investing in companies that stand to gain from grid modernization, look at companies that design or build transmission lines and substations or the companies that actually make the equipment. This includes high voltage transformers, circuit breakers, conductors, towers, cables, etc.


92 square miles = 238,000,000 m². This is only 238,000 MW.

Hector Said:

92 square acres of Ausra solar panels can power the intire country (with power lines and grids updated.Tell Me

We Answered:

If you have been told that 92 acres of solar panels can power the entire country you have been fed a bill of goods. It will take more than 92 acres worth, a lot more, maybe 920 sqare miles worth, that is closer to 620,000 acres. But, yeh, 92 acres worth is a start. There are a lot of publicly traded companies that do manufacture solar panels. TSL, STP are two. And there is at least one publicly traded wind turbine company, Vesta Wind Systems--VWSYF. If you are interested in companies that will benefit from upgrading the power lines, think copper. FCX