By Dave Lettero, Education Manager, Project Management Group
In June, China will begin construction of the world’s largest solar power plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China. The 2 gigawatt thin film solar project will take nearly a decade to complete. First Solar, the American company leading the project, will use new solar cells able to produce electricity at low light levels providing reliable solar power generation for utilities.
“2 gigawatts, that is a lot of clean power,” I say to myself and punch and few numbers into my calculator, “enough to power 1.6 million American homes. But just what is a lot of power? 2 gigawatts is adequate power to a utility. It takes 80 terrawatts (80 billion kilowatts) to power the needs of human civilization. And that’s not nearly the power needed for humanity to become a class 2 civilization–according to Carl Sagan that will take controlling the energy of an entire star. I’m always trying to find new ways to translate the energy production from the solar panels on schools in terms students will understand. Compared to the power used everyday 2 kilowatts might not seem like so much. But it’s amazing just how much even that kind of power can do.
I lived off-grid for a while a few years back and I cherished the 2.5 kilowatts I was able to generate with solar electric panels. It kept my radiant floor heat pumping, my water UV sterilizer glowing, lights on over my head, kept my DC fridge cold and my computer running. In short bursts I even used energy sucking power tools. 2.5 was a lot of power to me and it’s about half the size of the average solar electric installation on an American home. To a villager in a developing area 2 kilowatts is a world of power. Individual energy shares in a village can be 2 to 5 watts per person. A 30 watt panel in a village can mean power for a computer, lights, UV sterilization equipment for hospitals, pumps for wells, fans to stay cool.
On a school 2 kilowatts can power a 200 square foot classroom space minus the heating system. 2 kilowatts can power about 500 iPods, or 83 laptop computers, or 35 desktop computers, or 2 refrigerators, or 1 energy efficiency dryer, or one circular saw—virtually all the items we use every day. That means an annual savings of hundreds of dollars.
We’ll need to continue to find ways to make these items more efficient and to decrease our personal daily energy demands if we are to make the most of the large scale clean power projects coming online in the US in a few years. What’s relatively average energy usage to an American today is a whole lot to someone in a place like China. The new 2 gigawatt solar array there will power twice as many Chinese homes as American homes.