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.
The cost of land for 1 mw plant will therefore translate to 2 500 per month on average.
The simple thumb rule is high efficiency solar panels will require less area for the same mw capacity than lower efficiency panels.
8 9 acres mwac with 22 of power plants within 8 and 10 acres mwac.
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.
On average 1 acre solar farm cost about 500 per month to lease in the united states.
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.
On a capacity weighted basis total land requirements average out to 8 9 acres mwac and 7 3 acres mwac for direct land use.
But there are exceptions.
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.
One mw is equal to one million watts.
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.
A general rule of thumb.
Therefore we can say that for every acre the plant produces an average of 0 357 gwh or 357 mwh of energy per year.
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.
So how much money can a solar farm make for property owners.
Other published estimates of solar direct land use generally fall within these ranges.
A solar farm requires 4 7 acres of land per megawatt mw of capacity.
If you divide this one million watts by 200 watts per panel we are left with needing 5 000 solar panels to produce one mw of power.
