PV Gap

Sally Said:

How many days of sun light does it take to power one street light?

We Answered:

A typical street light might be 250 watts. A solar panel might collect 25 watts per square meter. When you consider clouds in most places half the time, you would need 10 square meters of solar panel to run one street light. Then there is all the energy needed to make the solar panels, and install them.

So the answer is: 182 days of sunlight, and a BIG solar panel, to power one street light for one year.

Wouldn't it be better to put all the solar panels in one place? A 1 km x 1 km solar panel is 100,000 times bigger than a 10 square meter panel, but it costs less than 100,000 times to make and operate. Then you could run wires to bring the electricity to each street light. Oh wait -- the street lights ALREADY have wires to bring electricity to them.

And with one big panel, you could put it in Arizona, where there is more sunlight and fewer clouds. It has been figured that a 100 x 100 mile solar "farm" could provide most of the power for the US.