Home > Work > Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses
1 " In (largely) gloomy Germany the area needed by PV panels to supply all electricity generation (nearly 560 TWh in 2012) would be considerably larger. With an average PV output of 100 kWh/m2 (the recent annual mean for both roof - and ground-based installations), it would require about 5,600 km2 covered with modules. That would be the equivalent of nearly 1.6% of Germany's total area, 25% of the country's built-up area, or almost 15% of land claimed by settlements and transportation infrastructure; and roughly 2.7 times the total area of all German roofs, based on an estimate of roughly 25 m2 of roof area per person (Waffenschmidt 2008). "
― Vaclav Smil , Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses
2 " Obviously, the higher the density of an energy resource, the lower are its transportation (as well as storage) costs, and this means that its production can take place farther away from the centers of demand. "
