According to the Hawaii Electric Company (HECO), its power generating capacity i

Question

According to the Hawaii Electric Company (HECO), its power generating capacity is approximately 1,700 MW (Mega Watts), or 1.7 x109 Watts (1 Watt is 1 Joule per second), or 1.7 x 109 Joule per second. The amount of solar energy outside the Earth’s atmosphere is 1,300 Watt/m2, meaning if we can collect all the solar energy falling on a 1 m2 size solar energy collector; we can extract 1,300 Joule of energy per second. Assuming that after the absorption of the solar energy by the atmosphere, and the inefficiency of the solar energy collector, we can get about 500 Watt/m2 on the ground. How big a solar energy collector (in unit of m2 or km2) do we need to completely replace the power generating capacity of HECO?

Explanation / Answer

Given: Power generating a capacity of HECO, P = 1.7 x 109 Watts,

Energy (after absorption of solar energy by the atmosphere and the inefficiency of the solar energy collector), we get is 500 Watt/m2.

Collector size = Energy capacity of HECO/ Solar energy per m2 reaching the ground

                         = 1.7 x 109 Watts/ 500 Watt/m2 = 3.4 x 106 m2 = 3.4 km2

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