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And grid scale is not being considered in my country for solar, yet the government just approved a new offshore drill site. The green option still remains the most expensive.
withered_preacher-
grid scale is not being considered in my country for solar
Well, having the sun go down for six months at a time makes it a less than ideal location 🙂
In the spirit of "What If?", I wondered about solar in the Empty Quarter. Saudi pumps about 10 million bbl a day of crude, which at 6GJ/bbl is
6×1016/(24×3600)=7×1011W
Solar PV can do about 200W.m-2, but not all day and there are transmission losses unless everybody moves, so say 50W.m-2 on average given the location.
That gives 14000km2 of solar required to replace Saudi oil, or 2% of the Empty Quarter
The announced Saudi target for solar by 2030 is just 6×1010WETA: For wind power, based on replicating Hornsea Project 3 (2.4GW plated power, 696km2), and assuming 40% load factor, replacing 7×1011W of oil power would need turbines extending over a total area of 200,000km2, or about 1/3 of the total area of the North Sea
gbj_tester
Yes, individual dwelling solar remains costly. The reason why grid scale is 3c/kWh is that they're putting thousands of panels at ground level in a field, not tens up on somebody's roof. If you had to drill for gas for just your own needs in your back yard, that would be even more expensive than putting up a few solar panels 🙂