The simple thumb rule is high efficiency solar panels will require less area for the same mw capacity than lower efficiency panels.
Area required for 1mw solar panel.
1000 watts total area x 1000 watts m 2 x 0 18.
Thus a 1 mw solar power plant with crystalline panels about 18 efficiency will require about 4 acres while the same plant with thin film technology 12 efficiency will require about 6 acres.
For example for a 1 mw solar power plant installation the solar farm land requirements would be around 4 acres when using a crystalline technology.
Plugging these number in the above equation we get.
The area required by thin film panels is about 50 more than that for the crystalline as the latter are about 50 more efficient than the former.
On average it s best to model for about 5 hours of sunlight per day so to generate 1 mw for 24 hours you would need 4x the amount of space and panels.
How much area is required to install 1 mw solar plant.
Back of the envelope calculations the earth gets very roughly about 1kw per square metre of solar radiation it s actually way more complicated than that see solar irradiance wikipedia.
Thus a 1 mw solar power plant with crystalline panels about 18 efficiency will require about 4 acres while the same plant with thin film technology 12 efficiency will require about 6 acres.
Shade free area required at different plant capacities and panel efficiencies if a 1 kw plant with 15 efficiency panels requires 100 sf of rooftop space then a 1 kw plant with 12 efficiency panels will require 125 sf of rooftop space.
When we use thin film technology a 1mw plant will require an average of 4 5 to 5 acres of land.
Accordingly if you want to install 1 mw solar pv power plant than 6000 square meter shadow gap area will be required.
In other terms we can say that for each 1 kw of solar panels you need 100 sqft of an area on average.
I you are going to install all the panels in one line you would need a space of approximately 1 m x 5 56 m each panel having a size of 1 m x 0 556 m on your rooftop.
Large utility scale solar farms such as kamuthi solar power among the world s largest solar projects can require up to 2 500 acres.
43 560 square feet is one acre each 300 watt panel is about 6 feet square you can fit about 7 200 panels into an acre so you would need about half an acre for a 1mw power plant.
How will i maintain the plant.
Normally 1 kw solar plant is requires 6 square meter area.
Total area 1 0 18 5 56 m 2.
Generation weighted averages for total area requirements range from about 3 acres gwh yr for csp towers and cpv installations to 5 5 acres gwh yr for small 2 axis flat panel pv power plants.