Solar plant begins generating electricity for TVA this week (AP/Tennessean)

[eppur_se_muova]

ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 17, 2011

JACKSON, Tenn. -- The largest solar electrical generation plant within the seven-state Tennessee Valley Authority is scheduled to begin generating electricity this week in Jackson.

The 5.5-acre solar farm is divided into two sections.

One will supply electricity directly to the TVA. The other will help power a nearby plant and warehouse.

The section feeding TVA contains 4,704 panels that were manufactured in Memphis by Sharp, reported The Jackson Sun. Each panel can generate 224 watts, providing up to 1,000 killowatt hours hourly.

Those panels are connected to TVA through the Jackson Energy Authority and the federal utility will purchase the electricity they produce.
***
not much more: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110117/NEWS01/110117020/Solar-plant-begins-generating-electricity-for-TVA-this-week

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Good news, bad article

"... 4,704 panels that were manufactured in Memphis by Sharp, reported The Jackson Sun. Each panel can generate 224 watts, providing up to 1,000 killowatt hours hourly."

"Killowatt hours hourly" -- ?

I also did the math. It's got a nameplate capacity of 1,053,696 watts, or a little over a megawatt. They probably expect between 125-250 kW output. It sounds like a healthy-sized pilot project. So I have no idea what that "1,000 killowatt hours hourly" refers to.

--d!

[PoliticAverse]

2. Here's another article....

http://m.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110114/NEWS01/101140318/1002&template=wapart

4,704 panels capable of producing 224 watts peak power = 4,704*224 = 1,053,696 watts = 1,054 kilowatts.

A "kilowatt hour" (they misspelled kilowatt in the article) is a unit of energy. It is one kilowatt of power for 1 hour
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilowatt_hour ).

1,000 kilowatt hours hourly would indicate that the plant can generate 1,000 kilowatt hours of energy every hour.

Usually you'd see "kilowatt hours annually" indicating how much energy a plant can generate over the course of a year.
I don't think they really know how much energy this pant will end up generating for a year as solar output varies greatly by time of day and season
so they just used the amount of energy the plant can generate each hour under ideal conditions, 1,000 kilowatt hours hourly.