Obama to visit Desoto Solar Plant
This week will see the switch thrown of the (currently) largest solar power plant in the United States of America. The Desoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Florida is about to be turned on and will have a capacity of about 25 megawatts of electrical production.
This solar plant takes up and area of 180 acres and is situated 80 miles south east of Tampa and comprises of over 90,000 photovoltaic solar panels.When fully operational it is estimated that enough power will be produced to supply over 3,000 households in the area. Over all construction costs came in at US$150 million and employed over 400 in the building process.
The US President, Barak Obama is scheduled to attend the opening ceremony. The previously largest solar power station was capable of producing half the amount of electricity as the Desoto Plant. It will not be long before the title is lost as another plant, also being developed by Florida Power & Light at Arcadia, will be triple the size and be capable of outputting 75 megawatts.
Other projects in other states of the USA have been announced or are under construction and will make the Florida plants look tiny in comparison when they have been completed and come online to the grid.
Solar plants operational or planned in other countries are as equally as massive and cover equally large areas. To make a comparison, a nuclear power plant could cover ½ the area and produce 80 times more energy, even at night. Or to put it another way, we would need a solar plant 160 times the size of Desoto to equal the power of a nuclear plant. Currently solar installations do have this problem with area needed and while the comparison shows up the problems the size of the earth is on our side.
As long as we site the location our plants on extremely suitable areas, which can take into account, the need for resources such as water and adequate sun obviously, the current use of the land for both human and wildlife along with the affect on the environment. This will leave more than enough area left for suitable solar installation to produce many times our energy needs. Solar energy of any sort will not totally satisfy our needs but have energy produced from huge areas of unused land is much better then having a potential nuclear bomb on your doorstep, no matter how small an area it may take up.
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