Originally published on February 24, 2018 at LinkedIn
Although Phase One of the construction of the Virtual Solar Grid has mainly focused on concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, I have also created a lot of Energy3D models for photovoltaic (PV) systems that make up about 9% of the total generation capacity of the Virtual Solar Grid thus far. As of February 24, 2018, the total number of solar panels included in these models have exceeded two million. In this article, I show some of these models for PV power plants in three different countries: the United Kingdom, Jamaica, and the United States. The reason that UK and Jamaica were selected is because I have just completed the modeling of the largest PV power plants in those two countries (which are relatively small compared with those in China, India, and the Middle East).
Let’s do some sightseeing in the Virtual Solar Grid.
United Kingdom
More than 220,000 solar panels in Shotwick Solar Park, UK’s largest PV solar power plant, are predicted by Energy3D to output 46 GWh per year.
A close-up view of the Energy3D model for the Shotwick Solar Park.
Jamaica
The Claredon Solar Farm is Jamaica’s largest solar power plant: 91,000 solar panels are predicted to generate 45 GWh per year.
A close-up view of the Energy3D model of the Clarendon Solar Farm
United States
The Warren Solar Farm of the University of Massachusetts is the second largest solar power plant in the Commonwealth: 77,000 solar panels are predicted by Energy3D to generate 30 GWh per year.
A close-up view of the Energy3D model of the Warren Solar Farm
15,000 solar panels in a solar farm in Freetown, Massachusetts are predicted to output 7 GWh per year
14,000 solar panels in a solar farm in New Bedford, Massachusetts are predicted to output 6 GWh per year
90,000 solar panels driven by single-axis trackers at the DeSoto Solar Energy Center in Florida are predicted to produce 40 GWh per year
The south fields of the DeSoto Solar Energy Center
21,000 solar panels driven by dual-axis trackers at OCI’s Alamo 3 Power Plant in Texas are predicted to generate 11 GWh per year
More than 400,000 solar panels driven by dual-axis trackers at the OCI’s Alamo 6 Power Plant in Texas are predicted to generate 300 GWh per year
A close-up view of the Alamo 6 dual-axis trackers
More than 300,000 solar panels driven by single-axis trackers in OCI’s Pearl Solar Farm in Texas are predicted to generate 460 GWh per year (the reason that these arrays are more productive is because we chose a type of solar panel with higher than 20% cell efficiency, as opposite to the 15% cell efficiency chosen for the panels of Alamo 6)
