Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by slagfart 3181 days ago
Sorry - I must be missing something.

300 MW = 300,000 kW

6 hours of generating capacity per day, 365 days in the year, gives 2190 hours of generation per year. 2,190 hours * 300,000kW * 0.02USD gives an annual cost to Saudi Arabia of $13.14M a year, for 300MW of installed capacity.

A modern panel is around 250W, so they are installing and running 1.2M panels, for ~$11/year per panel, including grid connection and transformation costs? Insane!

4 comments

The wonders one can achieve in a country that still uses slaves...
Is the United States doing this? I know we have literal slavery in prisons.
No, they just make things for the military and general consumption, nothing truly useful.
Here is a long list of companies that sell products made by taxpayer funded prison labor: http://buycott.com/campaign/companies/504/boycott-companies-...
Utility panels are quite often 350W these days. But yes, still insane.
As a complete noob - Is there a place I can find data on panel prices? I was just reading this article: http://www.livemint.com/Industry/sMC62YoWv4LybaPZnKivMM/Indi...

and the prices seem very very low.

I got my pricing from AliBaba - commercial rates seem to be $0.3/Watt to $0.4/Watt - so roughly $100USD for a 250W panel
Why 6 hours? Not disputing it, just assuming I'm missing something.
The math starts to make a lot more sense at 8 hours a day and 350W panels, that's for sure.
6 hours was just a ballpark to compensate for weak sunlight early/late in the day, bad weather, some panels getting damaged, loss due to dust, etc.

Not sure what the real rate of generation would be, and I'm happy if someone with actual solar experience can clarify my estimate.

Well, it's certainly not me, but I was curious and did some digging. I part of the benefit is (shocker) that they're close to the equator and don't have the same shift in hours of day and night that occur with the seasons as other latitudes do.