How Many Solar Panels To Power The Us

Solar has ranked either first or second in capacity added to the u s.

How many solar panels to power the us.

Solar power is more affordable accessible and prevalent in the united states than ever before. Solar energy accounts for 1 6 of total u s. The batteries you need to store the energy to make sure you have 24 7 power is 1 mile by 1 mile. This is enough capacity to power the equivalent of 12 million average american homes 1.

This number does look intimidating but with a large number of solar companies in u s. Solar power in the united states includes utility scale solar power plants as well as local distributed generation mostly from rooftop photovoltaics as of the end of 2019 the united states had over 71 3 gigawatts gw of installed photovoltaic capacity. In 2018 utility scale solar power generated 66 6 terawatt hours twh 1 66 of total u s. Installed 10 6 gw of solar in 2018 alone.

Installations have grown 35 fold to an estimated 62 5 gigawatts gw today. After all we don t have dual suns that permit us to soak up solar energy 24 hours a day and there will be inevitable interruptions in power relay due to maintenance or any number of incidents. The fundamental solar energy stats. Assuming this power rating we would need to divide 2 75 tw by 350w which gives us the gigantic number of 7 85 billion 7 857 142 857 to be precise panels required.

It can be turned into reality. As of the end of 2018 the u s. With solar panels it would take a fairly small corner of nevada or texas or utah. You only need about 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels to power the entire united states.