When we use thin film technology a 1mw plant will require an average of 4 5 to 5 acres of land.
Average lifespan of a 1 mw solar panel farm.
Meanwhile that value sounds unusually low in comparison to typical costs associated with residential solar 3 to 4 dollars per watt.
If you divide this one million watts by 200 watts per panel we are left with needing 5 000 solar panels to produce one mw of power.
Thus a 1 mw solar power plant with crystalline panels about 18 efficiency will require about 4 acres while the same plant with thin film technology 12 efficiency will require about 6 acres.
Topaz solar farm is a 550 megawatt mw ac photovoltaic power station in san luis obispo county california construction on the project began in november 2011 and ended in november 2014.
The area required by thin film panels is about 50 more than that for the crystalline as the latter are about 50 more efficient than the former.
How long do they last.
For example for a 1 mw solar power plant installation the solar farm land requirements would be around 4 acres when using a crystalline technology.
One mw is equal to one million watts.
If you were to use panels that were a higher wattage such as 320 watts you would need significantly less panels to achieve the same one mw of power.
It is one of the world s largest solar farms the 2 5 billion project includes 9 million cdte photovoltaic modules based on thin film technology manufactured by u s.
Therefore you can assume that a 1 mw solar farm would cost roughly 1 million to install.
Although the upfront cost may appear to be large your monthly savings on electricity bills and tax incentives surely lowers the overall cost of a solar power system installation.
Solar panel lifespan guide.