SOLAR QUICK GUIDE
The upper atmosphere receives from the sun a constant influx of around
174 TERAWATTS
.
During every hour more energy comes in than humanity needs for one year
(apx. 160.000 terawatt-hours, TWh).
1m
1m
The usable solar power per square-meter
at ground-level amounts
Using current PV technology
we need as little as
150–300 W
3.5–7 kWh/day
0.3 %
of earth's land surface in order to
completely cover humanity's energy needs.
How ContourGlobal’s Photovoltaic Powerplants work
Sunlight
Solar panel
arrays
Inverter1 and
Transformer
An Inverter is an electronic device used to convert DC (direct-current)
electricity to AC (alternating-current), which can then be transformed to
higher voltages for delivery across great distances.
1
Public power grid
2015 Solar 2015
ContourGlobal Solar ContourGlobal
ContourGlobal Slovakia
32 installations
ContourGlobal Czech Republic
3 installations
ContourGlobal Italy
13 installations
Total capacity of
Energy for
60 MW
90,000 people
How do we calculate energy?
Power, measured in Watts (W) is what a machine requires (or delivers) at any given moment
Laptop
Lightbulb
Hairdryer
Oven
10 W
60 W
1600 W
2400 W
Multiply the
power with the
total time of operation in order to get
the amount of energy used (power x time = energy)
Energy is measured in Watt-hours (Wh), or Kilowatt-hours (1 kWh = 1000 Wh)
10 W x 2 hours
60 W x 3 hours
20 watt-hours (Wh)
180 Wh
1600 W x 0.1 hours
2400 W x 2 hours
160 Wh
4.8 kWh
Environmental Benefits of Solar Power
Clean and natural source of direct energy
Reduction of
CO2
The combined Solar Energy production
from ContourGlobal's plants
avoids 71,000 tonnes
of CO2 annually compared to conventional fuels
no direct use of limited resources,
such as fossil fuels
no direct generation of daily
waste streams
What drives ContourGlobal to invest in solar energy?
The cost of solar energy has declined dramatically in the past five
years and is expected to decline further.
Solar energy provides a highly predictable way to generate
electricity with zero carbon emissions.
Renewablee energy such as solar generation
is frequently less expensive than generation using
fossil fuels.
The Sun is the greatest source of energy in our world.