TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

NYTimes: Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California

Two solar energy plants will be installed in San Luis Obispo County, and their total power will be 800 megawatts, or the amount of a large coal-powered plant. The current largest U.S. photovoltaic installation is at Nellis Air Force Base, which generates 14 megawatts of electricity.

This is quite exciting, but the catch is that these two power plants will cover an immense amount of land — 12.5 square miles. And that is the difficulty with solar panels: they must cover a large surface area to generate a decent amount of electricity. For comparison, the San Onofre nuclear power plant in southern California generates 2,200 megawatts of electricity, but uses little more than a tenth of a square mile.

Until photovoltaic cells become much more efficient and much less costly, solar power plants are a viable means of generating large percentages of our electricity. Recent work, however, has created photovoltaic cells with 40% efficiency and, apparently, at reduced cost. The key is commercialization — large adoption of the technology creates economies of scale and reduced cost, which can then pay for further development of higher efficiency cells.

The San Luis Obispo power plant will certainly help do that, but without large private sector adoption, it will not be enough.