Although venture capitalists and other investors have poured millions into solar projects, building factories and
solar farms requires millions in capital, which has become scarce.
However, replacing these power sources with wind and
solar farms requires megawatt - level storage capacity to buffer the intermittent generation from these renewable sources.
This is 2 1/2 times the area of
solar farm required to power the world in 2030.
Not exact matches
Wind and
solar farms, meanwhile,
require no fuel.
Using that formula, the researchers found that the amount of energy
required to create a
solar farm is comparable to the energy used to build each of the five battery technologies.
She and Yung estimate that supporting 300 million people — roughly the population of the United States — would
require a
solar farm covering 10 per cent of Titan, or the surface area of the entire US.
Whereas
solar or wind
farms have few negative environmental side effects, they
require more space and produce less energy than environmentally unfriendly coal plants.
But that's the catch: right now and in the immediate future manufacture, transport and installation of non-fossil energy sources, from windmill
farms to
solar thermal plants to
solar voltaic panels, will
require the emission of fossil fuel generated CO2.
«at 800 treefree ha for the
solar (to match output from a 1600 MW nuclear, multiply that to 16,600 ha; the wind
farm will
require tree free land of 27,500 ha on the same basis.»
Another facet of the reports on Victoria's taxpayers» heroism is that the demands on surface area are far from negligible, at 800 treefree ha for the
solar (to match output from a 1600 MW nuclear, multiply that to 16,600 ha; the wind
farm will
require tree free land of 27,500 ha on the same basis.
Replacing California's last nuclear plant Diablo Canyon with
solar would
require 18
solar farms the size of one of the state's largest — and thus 18 times more transmission.
Why, to meet present US energy needs, you'd
require solar panels covering an area the size of Spain, or wind
farms the area of Kazakhstan.
The potential of wind and
solar energy is almost limitless, because
solar alone can provide 100 folds energy requirement of the US, and wind can supply 40 x the energy
required with a turbine on every
farm.
California is again at the forefront of renewable energy policy,
requiring most new homes to have
solar panels installed during construction, which will add about one large
solar farm a year.
It would
require a huge oversupply wind turbines and
solar farms to eke out enough electricity to meet demand on days with little wind and / or sun.
Wind
farms and
solar require backup power almost as large as their own output and the backup is usually of the more expensive type for fast peak switching.
But fish tanks need cleaning and aerating, and the vertical
farm needs pumped water which
requires power; that comes from wind turbines and
solar panels, stored in a battery bank.
Solar photovoltaic panels on individual buildings or local windmills are distributed generation, while large hydro and wind
farms are central generation
requiring transmission and distribution (T&D).