The U.S. solar industry expects to add a record 32 gigawatts (GW) of production capacity this year, up 53% on new capacity in 2022 and helped by investment incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, a report published on Thursday showed.
32 GW is a lot. The average thermal coal generating station in the US is 1GW and these stations have an average capacity of 50%. That means that this colar prodution capacity enables us to displace 64 coal stations during the daytime if consumption does not grow.
solar actually gets a greater power density. most wind projects in the US get about 2.5 MW/km^2
ie 250w per square meter, but it doesnt get affected by heat.1 square km could then host 2Mw of solar and 2.5Mw of wind. I always wondered how efficient wind is. according to google, a windmill produces 3 Gwh per year, some read 8Gwh, idk what to believe. i would be interested if there were more estate efficient form of renewable