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.
Average lifespan of a 1 mw solar panel farm.
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.
In other terms we can say that for each 1 kw of solar panels you need 100 sqft of an area on.
Buying solar panels is an investment that pays you back over the period of time.
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.
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.
The economies of scale concept is in full effect in the solar industry.
Solar panel lifespan guide.
Meanwhile that value sounds unusually low in comparison to typical costs associated with residential solar 3 to 4 dollars per watt.
One mw is equal to one million watts.
How long do they last.
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.
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.
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.