From Dick Mayer:
FROM THE ARTICLE, SOME RULES OF THUMB:
- Roughly 5 acres per Megawwatt
- Roughly 800 solar panels per acre
- Roughly $3 million per Megawatt or $3,000 per Kilowatt
To put it in some perspective (and I realize that we would not get any power after sunset): Maui uses about 200 MW, which 1,000 acres of panels could produce. That is less than 2 square miles. Not much.
Note from Karen Chun, former utility engineer. There are several ways of storing this energy so that it becomes “firm” and can actually all be used to meet Maui’s electrical requirements:
- Distributed batteries installed with homeowners’ PV systems (Much of these PV panels could be located on roofs)
- Small pumped hydro, carefully situated
- Phase change salts and other heat storing mediums that can then be used to heat fluid to turn a turbine to generate electricity.
