22M acres is 34375 square miles or 89031 square kilometers. The goal is to pick the best 700,000 acres (1094 sq miles / 2833 km2) for solar development spread over 11 western states.
The US government opens 22 million acres of federal lands to solar
https://electrek.co/2024/01/18/us-govt-opens-22-million-acres-federal-lands-solar/
5 Comments
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.de · 6 pts · 2y
According to my calculations, 22M acres is about 20 000 TWh/year of solar power, or about 12% of the world's energy consumption.
700 000 acres is about 0.4% of the world's energy consumption.
mosiacmango@lemm.ee · 10 pts · 2y
Nice. One move that powers half a percent of the earth. Thats a huge boon.
If each country did the same, that would be roughly 50% of all earths power demands for the cost of 700,000 acres each. Many countries can't spare 700k acres, but a concerted effort would likely yield at least 30% of all power demands. Im glad the US is making this move.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 2y
But it will be used locally so what % of the US energy usage is it?
YerbaYerba@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
US total production is roughly 4000TWh per year. 20% is already renewables and another 18% is nuclear.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2y
So an extra ~630TWh of solar which is about 15% of the current total.