How many solar panels would it take to produce the same amount?
2006-09-21 09:07:50 · 3 answers · asked by flyingdebris1 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
Three Mile Island Nuke plant has an output capacity of 816 MegaWatts.
A 20 Watt Solar panel is about 6 square feet (a rough estimate) and cost about $150 dollars.
Also, you only get 20 watts out of them if you get full sunlight, and you only get that about 5 hours a day (on average) for most of north america, so multiply by 4.8 for when it is dark.
Sooo .... clickity clickity clickity ...
You would need 195,840,000 of those puppies to produce that much power.
Surface area = 1,175,040,000 square feet which is just over 42 square miles, at a cost of 176,256,000,000 dollars (that's billion).
Also, solar panels typically have a lifetime of about 5-10 years and have to be replaced.
That help you out?
2006-09-21 09:18:14 · answer #1 · answered by Bors 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most plants put out one gigawatt. That's equal to about four standard gas turbines. Solar panels are not yet able to produce enough electricity per square foot of panel to make them feasible. Get yourself about 5000 acres.
2006-09-21 09:11:11 · answer #2 · answered by Casinomule 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. Typically about 1,000 megawatts. The efficiency of the solar panels and how clean you can keep them determines how many would equal this.
2006-09-21 09:11:42 · answer #3 · answered by Cirric 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋