{"id":1139,"date":"2014-06-19T07:24:17","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T12:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2014-06-19T07:29:49","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T12:29:49","slug":"fact-check-solar-land-space-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/19\/fact-check-solar-land-space-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact Check \u2013 Solar Land Space Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am still working on reviewing the EPA Clean Power Plan analysis (Paper #1<\/a>, Paper #2<\/a>, Paper #3<\/a>).\u00a0 I am currently running multiple dispatch simulations to produce an impact analysis using AuroraXMP.\u00a0 However, I got distracted from a twitter blog that showed the solar land requirements for the world to be extremely small.\u00a0 See blog screenshot below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I traced the source to this paper from a student who wrote it for their Diploma Thesis<\/a>.\u00a0 On page 11 & 12 of their report are the claim and the graphic being spread on the internet.\u00a0\u00a0 The first issue which should jump out is the statement \u201cIf a solar electricity yield of 250 GWhel\/km\u00b2 is taken as base \u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Doing a little research one can conclude at best that yield is off by 3X per the latest by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)<\/a>.\u00a0 In addition, the world electric consumption seems to be a little low in the assumption used 16,076 TWh\/y vs. 20,280 TWh\/yr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If we recompute the numbers using a low estimate of land use per NREL of 3 acre\/GWH-yr, the state of Oregon becomes the world size requirement versus the analysis which was closer to the size of West Virginia.\u00a0\u00a0 West Virginia is more represented of the US requirement. \u00a0This is not including the need to get battery storage and transmission.\u00a0 Battery storage size would be much smaller – less than Rhode Island.\u00a0\u00a0 However land requirement is only one piece of the puzzle. \u00a0 Data source for state area.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The initial capital cost of such endeavor would be at least twice as large as using natural gas generation. \u00a0Utility scale solar cost is at best around $2000\/kW \u2013 then a utility scale battery would add another $500\/kW versus a brand new gas plant which is around $1000\/kW. \u00a0 The gas plant does have a significant variable cost, but as many of you know who have to budget your money, the best decision for the long-run sometimes cost too much given your current capital constraints.\u00a0\u00a0 The trend for de-regulation for the generation business puts a greater limit on the ability to make these longer term decisions.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned always check your facts when it comes to energy related discussions. \u00a0It is too easy to manipulate the facts, because there is so much data and few go deeper to find the truth. \u00a0The truth shall set you free.<\/p>\n

Back to EPA analysis \u2013 stay tune\u2026.<\/p>\n

Your Energy Consultant in Search of the Truth,<\/p>\n

David<\/p>\n

David K. Bellman
\nAll Energy Consulting LLC- “Independent analysis and opinions without a bias.”
\n<\/span>614-356-0484
\n<\/span>dkb@allenergyconsulting.com
\n<\/a>@AECDKB
\n<\/span>blog:\u00a0 <\/span>https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/category\/market-insights\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am still working on reviewing the EPA Clean Power Plan analysis (Paper #1, Paper #2, Paper #3).\u00a0 I am currently running multiple dispatch simulations to produce an impact analysis using AuroraXMP.\u00a0 However, I got distracted from a twitter blog that showed the solar land requirements for the world to be extremely small.\u00a0 See blog […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3,17],"tags":[165,18,284,283],"class_list":["post-1139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-insights","category-natural-gas","category-renewables","tag-footprint","tag-solar","tag-solar-cost","tag-solar-footprint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1144,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/1144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}