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What Are Solar Farms?

Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base

Solar farms also known as photovoltaic (PV) power stations or solar parks, represent today utility-scale solar power systems that are used to generate renewable and clean electricity which feeds the power grid.

A solar farm is different from a solar PV system mounted on the roof or in the yard because the farm uses a large number of large solar panels to generate power at utility scale. Let’s see what are solar farms.

Solar Farm Definition

A solar farm is a solar power plant that uses a large number of solar photovoltaic panels to generate clean electricity at utility-scale, which powers the electricity grid.

Solar farms are also called solar parks, solar power stations, solar arrays, solar power plants, etc. depending on the area of the planet where they are built.

The size of the solar farm (in terms of generation capacity) can vary from only a few MWs (megawatts) up to hundreds of MWs (megawatts) depending on the scale of the project.

Short History of Solar Farms

The first solar farm with a generation capacity of 1 MWp (megawatt peak) was built at the end of 1982 by Arco Solar at Lugo near Hesperia, California.

This solar project was followed by another solar farm with a generation capacity of 5.2 MWp built in 1984 in Carrizo Plain (a large enclosed grassland plain) near San Luis Obispo County, California.

Both these solar parks have been already decommissioned.

The first solar farm (4.2 MW) built in Europe was the community-owned project built in Hemau, Germany, which was commissioned in 2003.

Due to the feed-in electricity tariffs (FiT) introduced in Germany in 2004, a large number of solar parks have been built in the country.

From all these solar projects, a few hundreds were small projects (just over 1 MWp), and about 50 of them had a peak generation capacity of 10 MWp.

With the spread of the feed-in tariffs across Europe, Spain has become in 2008 the largest market for solar power by building 60 solar farms with a generation capacity of over 10 MW.

In the last decade, a large number of solar farms have been built in many countries across the planet due to the increased interest in developing renewable energy sources that could reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, and also the level of air pollution.

Types of Solar Farms

Today, we are harnessing the power of the Sun in two different forms.

1. Solar farms using solar PV (photovoltaic) panels

This type of solar farms are using a large number of solar panels facing south (in the Northern hemisphere) and facing north (in the Southern hemisphere) to turn the sunlight into clean electricity that is stored and used to power the grid.

The panels can be fixed or can use a tracking system (single axis or dual axis solar tracker) to follow the Sun and increase efficiency.

Solar PV panels are converting the sunlight into direct current (DC) electricity, so they use powerful inverters to turn DC electricity into AC electricity (alternating current).

Small electrical power plants can be found at solar farms

Every solar farm uses a small electrical power plant installed on site because the solar panels generate electricity at voltages of 480 V (AC electricity) and because the electricity grid operates at much higher voltages (tens or hundreds of thousands of volts).

The small electric power plant used by the solar farms uses transformers to increase the voltage of the AC electricity produced by the PV panels.

The downsides of these solar farms is represented by the fact that they produce electricity only during the day, and especially in the sunny days.

This is the reason why the power produced by these power plants needs to be stored and used to feed the grid when needed.

2. Solar thermal power plants

A solar thermal power plant (also called concentrated solar power or simply CSP) is a different type of solar farm or solar park because it uses the sunlight to heat an agent which will generate steam to spin a turbine and produce electricity with the help of a large generator.

To heat the agent (molten salt) the solar farm uses large mirrors that are concentrating the sunlight into a point located at the top of a tower installed in the center of the power plant.

Because all the mirrors are concentrating the sunlight towards the same point where the agent is located, the molten salt will reach very high temperatures and will start generating steam to produce clean electricity.

This type of solar farm can generate electricity even during the night because the agent is so hot that it continues to generate steam and electricity even during the night.

Another type of solar thermal power plant uses the CSP technology (concentrated solar power) uses polished metal mirrors that are straight in one dimension, and curved as a parabola in the other two dimensions.

These mirrors reflect the sunlight into the focal point where is a tube filled with a heating agent (mineral oil).

The heated agent is used for industrial heating, but also to produce steam and generate clean electricity day and night.

Generation Capacity Degradation Over Time

A solar PV panel loses a small part of its efficiency every year, which means that over a longer period of use the system will generate less power.

However, the solar PV panels built after the year 2010, have a median degradation rate of only 0.5% per year, which means that after 25 years of use, the PV system will lose only 12% of its output capacity.

Inverters need to be replaced after a period of usage between 5 and 10 years, but the transformers will have a longer life (between 25 and 75 years), which means that they don’t need to be replaced during the entire life period of the solar power plant.

Top Largest Solar Power Plants in the World with a Generation Capacity of Over 1 GW

I remember that about three years ago (2015), we announced that the Longyangxia Dam Solar Park built in China has become the largest solar farm in the world at that time due to a generation capacity of 850 MW.

However, since then, more than four different solar parks built in India and China have reached a generation capacity of 1 GW (gigawatt), and even beyond.

1. Tengger Desert Solar Park

This solar farm built in Zhongwei, Ningxia, China, is the largest photovoltaic solar power plant in the world today (is also called “The Great Wall Of Solar” in China) with a generation capacity of 1,547 MW (peak output).

To achieve such a large generation capacity for solar energy, the solar park occupies in the Tengger desert (located mostly in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China) an area of 43 km2.

The Tengger Desert Solar Park was commissioned in 2016.

2. Bhadla Solar Park

Bhadla Solar Park is the largest solar PV (photovoltaic) power station in India, and the second largest solar PV power plant in the world with a generation capacity of 1,365 MW in 2018.

This solar farm covers an area of 40 km2 in Bhadla, Phalodi tehsil, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, India.

The area occupied by the solar park is a dry and arid region covered mostly by sand and was described as “almost unlivable” due to its extreme climate conditions.

Average temperatures in the area hover between 46 and 48 degrees Celsius (115 – 118 F) and often occur sand storms and hot winds.

This solar parks was built in four phases

Badla solar park has been developed in 4 phases, and the first three phases have been already commissioned.

The first two phases of the project have been developed by the Rajasthan Solar Park Development Company, which is a subsidiary of the Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation (RRECL).

The first phase consisting of five projects of 16 MW each, have been already commissioned.

The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has set up a 260 MW solar project in the second phase.

At the end of the second phase (August 2017), a generation capacity of 680 MW has been already commissioned.

The construction of roads, water supply systems, pooling stations and transmission lines has been completed in the third phase when the generation capacity of the solar project reached 1,000 MW.

The third phase was completed by Saurya Urja Company of Rajasthan Limited, which is a joint venture between the government of Rajasthan and the IL&FS.

Phase 4 of the project was developed by Adani Renewable Energy Parks, which is another joint venture company of the Rajasthan government and Adani Enterprises.

In the fourth phase of the project, another 500 MW in generation capacity will be added to the project.

The lowest tariff for solar projects in the Bhadla Solar Park was RS 2,44/kWh ($0.013/kWh), which is the lowest in India.

When finished, the total generation capacity of the Bhadla Solar Park will exceed 2,255 MW.

3. Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park

Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park is the third largest solar park in the world today covering an area of 24 km2 in Panyam Mandal of Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, India.

The solar park is built in an arid area and uses 4 million solar PV panels that have a capacity of 315 and 320 W.

In a sunny day, the Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park generates 8 million kWh of clean electricity, which is enough to cover the entire power demand of the Kurnool district.

4. Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base

The Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base is a solar park shaped like a Giant Panda, and is the second largest solar farm in China.

The first phase of this massive solar project was recently completed by adding a generation capacity of 1,000 MW.

When the last phase of the project will be completed, the generation capacity of the Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base will reach the level of 3,000 MW (3 GW).

Final conclusion

While the Trump administration is trying to revive the coal sector in the U.S., other countries in Europe and Asia (China and India) are making massive investments to increase their generation capacity of solar and wind power because they are aware of the fact that the climate on our planet is very affected by our polluting activities.

In order to reduce the level of air, soil and water pollution in their countries, China and India are trying to increase the share of the renewable energy sources in their energy mix, which will automatically reduce the use of fossil fuels for energy and heat generation.

The fact that almost all the countries on the planet have finally realized that global warming and climate change are real and are generated by the use of fossil fuels for heat and power generation, is showing that mankind goes ahead towards the green future that will follow.

Article written by:

I write about the renewable energy sector, electric cars and climate change issues. I love nature and good food, so I travel all over the world to see new places and meet new people. Magda Savin

4 Comments

  1. Nany Tavares

    Reading your article showed me that we need to think in the future from now because developing a major capacity to produce solar energy in solar farms require massive investments in the field and to upgrade the power grid.
    I would like to hear your thoughts about floating solar farms, maybe in a future article.
    Thanks.

  2. Christoper Moen

    I have found something really interesting in your article about solar farms, which ignited my interest to also read about the photovoltaic effect.

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