Put another way a pv plant spanning 32 acres could power 1 000 households.
Solar panel acres per mw.
Redefining its calculations nrel determines that a large fixed tilt solar pv plant requires 2 8 acres per gwh year of generation.
Small single axis photovoltaic systems require an average 2 9 acres per 1 000 megawatt hours or 3 8 acres when considering all unused area that falls inside the project boundary.
A general rule of thumb.
A solar farm requires 4 7 acres of land per megawatt mw of capacity.
So how much money can a solar farm make for property owners.
Thus a 1 mw solar power plant with crystalline panels about 18 efficiency will require about 4 acres while the same plant with thin film technology 12 efficiency will require about 6 acres.
When it comes to solar energy per acre a photovoltaic solar plant which on average produces 1 gwh per year will require around 2 8 acres of land.
8 9 acres mwac with 22 of power plants within 8 and 10 acres mwac.
The simple thumb rule is high efficiency solar panels will require less area for the same mw capacity than lower efficiency panels.
For direct land use requirements the capacity weighted average is 7 3 acre mwac with 40 of power plants within 6 and 8 acres mwac.
The cost of land for 1 mw plant will therefore translate to 2 500 per month on average.
On a capacity weighted basis total land requirements average out to 8 9 acres mwac and 7 3 acres mwac for direct land use.
Therefore we can say that for every acre the plant produces an average of 0 357 gwh or 357 mwh of energy per year.
The first solar farm boom area was in the south west with devon cornwall being a haven for the solar investor and this soon spread right along the south coast.
On average 1 acre solar farm cost about 500 per month to lease in the united states.
Other published estimates of solar direct land use generally fall within these ranges.
But there are exceptions.
Approximately 25 acres of land is required for every 5 megawatts mw of installation enough to power 1 515 homes1.
One mw is equal to one million watts.
