cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/17595046
So I had no context for how big that is and why it’s newsworthy
To put the sheer size of the 8 GW solar farm in perspective, the three largest solar farms in the world by capacity are China’s Ningxia Tenggeli and Golmud Wutumeiren solar farms, with a capacity of 3 MW each, and a 3.5-GW solar farm outside Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.
Tho still didn’t understand the scale until I looked up a stat on nuclear
Nuclear energy has been powering the U.S. grid for the past 6 decades and produces around 1 gigawatt of power per plant on average.
Then again, I thought, maybe nuclear power might be less productive than I think it is, so looked up a list of biggest power plants in the world
- Number 1 is Three Gorges Damn at 22 GW
- there is an 7.96 GW nuclear power plant in Japan
- but 8 GW would be the 10th biggest power plant in the world
Then I learnt that that nuclear power plant has been out of action since like 2017. It’ll soon(?) be active again but for now the record for biggest nuclear is held by a 7.4 MW power plant in South Korea
In conclusion, my ADHD medications have worn off and I should go to bed
So this ginormous solar field is roughly as powerful as a single nuclear plant?
The world’s largest nuclear power plant, which has been offline for over a year and hasn’t been fully operational in over a decade
No.
MW is the maximum capacity not the average.
A nuclear reactor runs at close to its maximum output pretty much 24/7/365.
A solar farm only operates during the day, and even then it only operates at maximum output in the middle of a clear sunny day.
The overall average output of a nuclear plant is typically around 90% of its capacity.
The overall average output of solar farm is 20-25%.
This massive farm will still only output a bit more electricity than what a single nuclear reactor outputs.
A nuclear power station typically has more than one reactor, so compared to a typical nuclear power station this isn’t even close to the average nuclear plant.
Though it does beat a few of the smallest nuclear plants that only have a single reactor.
Nuclear outputs a fuck-ton of electricity for its size.
