Solar PV density

What is the power density of a solar photovoltaic?

For solar photovoltaics (PV), estimates of the power density differ by about a factor of 12. The low-end estimates by MacKay and Smil are the 3–9 W e m −2 (MacKay 2013b, Smil 2015).

What is solar energy density?

Solar energy power density has an average of 168 W/m 2 ; however, not all of this power can be captured and turned into electricity.

What is the power density of 1150 solar power plants?

The mean 2016 power density of 1150 solar power plants was 5.4 W e m −2. Solar capacity factors and (likely) power densities are increasing with time driven, in part, by improved panel efficiencies. Wind power has a 10-fold lower power density than solar, but wind power installations directly occupy much less of the land within their boundaries.

What was solar power density in 2016?

Power densities during 2016, binned by the area of the (A) solar power plant, or (B) wind power plant. Whisker plots show the interquartile range (IQR), with black points showing the mean of each area bin. Note that the solar areas are about 100-times smaller than the wind power plant areas. Solar's mean power density in 2016 was 5.4 W e m −2.

What happened to utility-scale PV power and energy density?

The last major study of utility-scale PVs power and energy density in the United States (from Ong et al. ) is now almost a decade out of date, yet is still routinely cited on matters pertaining to land requirements and land use—despite the rapid evolution of the industry in the years since its publication.

Which solar energy system has the lowest power density?

The solar energy system (Fig. 3) with the lowest power density in the literature was solar thermal (μ = 3.7 ± 0.3 W e /m 2), followed by utility-scale PV (μ = 5.8 ± 1.2 W e /m 2), residential PV (μ = 6.7 ± 0.9 W e /m 2), and concentrated solar (μ = 9.7 ± 0.4 W e /m 2) which make up the upper tail of the boxplot in Fig. 2.