Power Plants and concerns of surface area occupation

29/04/2024

?

?????????????? Excuse me please but we took a break from our articles for a while due to our workload. During this time, I tried to obtain new information with the means available publicly. We are starting our automotive-focused articles again during this hard period as the world ?is ongoing in a change process. In our articles so far, we have tried to provide information directly on the automotive industry, the automobile as a product, and the manufacturing process as an industrial product. We have previously stated that one of the most important changing sectors as the generation and use of energy resources. The most common question that comes up in many panels and interviews is which will be the source in this regard, or more precisely, whether electricity or another source will replace oil. It is a clear fact that new products will be developed based on electricity in the automotive industry for a long time.

We also see that many studies and news appear in the written and visual media claiming that electric vehicles are not left behind than diesel or gasoline vehicles in terms of total pollution. Naturally, these users who read this news question whether they can actually contribute to measures against climate change by switching to electric cars. We will try to cover some basic information on this subject in the coming articles. First of all, it is necessary to focus on the energy issue rather than the product, that is, beyond the automobile. It would be appropriate to thoroughly understand how energy is obtained, how it is transmitted, and of course what the environmental effects are in these processes, and to evaluate the available data accordingly.

?

?????????????? The method by which electricity is obtained is of great importance in terms of both the economic and environmental effects of electric vehicles. Depending on the method used, environmental impacts such as carbon emissions or water consumption vary. One of the data we have, gives the surface area used by power plants in energy production. As you can see in the graph in the article, the surface areas used by different energy production methods to produce one megawatt of energy vary significantly. Of course, as always, let's start by providing the source of our data.: https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-per-energy-source#article-licence

?????????????? According to the data here, the power plants that consume the highest amount of square meters per megawatt are listed as follows:

-??????? Hydroelectric (Small and Medium Power Plants (<360 MW)): 33 m2/MWh

-??????? Focusing Solar Towers Power Plants: 22 m2/MWh

-??????? Coal Power Plants (Using Carbon Capture Technology): 21 m2/MWh

-??????? Ground-Fixed Solar Power Plants with Photovoltaic Silicon Panels: 19 m2/MWh

-??????? Coal Power Plants: 15 m2/MWh

-??????? Hydroelectric (Large Power Plants (>660 MW)): 14 m2/MWh

-??????? Ground-Fixed Solar Power Plants with Photovoltaic Cadmium Panels: 12.6 m2/MWh

?

The power plants listed above refer to energy production methods that require more than 10 square meters of space per megawatt. As can be seen, hydroelectric power plants occupy the highest area, with 33 square meters per megawatt. Again, it is clearly seen that solar energy and coal power plants require more than 10 square meters of space. While coal power plants require 15 square meters per megawatt, the amount of space required for those using carbon capture technology to ensure low carbon emissions increases to 21 square meters. The significant disadvantage of coal power plants stems from the area used for mining as well as the area used to enrich the coal. If solar power plants focus, they need 22 square meters, in structures with fixed panels, 19 square meters for silicon panels and 12.6 square meters for cadmium panels. However, we must state that these average values vary significantly. In solar power plants with fixed panels, these values can be halved or doubled, depending on the location and location.

Power plants that require less than 10 square meters of space per megawatt are listed as follows:

-??????? Rooftop Solar Power Plants with Photovoltaic Silicon Panels: 3 m2/MWh

-??????? Natural Gas Cycle Power Plants (Using Carbon Capture Technology): 1.3 m2/MWh

-??????? Rooftop Solar Power Plants with Photovoltaic Cadmium Panels: 1.2 m2/MWh

-??????? Natural Gas Cycle Power Plants: 1 m2/MWh

-??????? Wind Power Plants: 0.4 m2/MWh

-??????? Nuclear Power Plants: 0.3 m2/MWh

?

The power plants on this second list require much less surface area than those on the first list. One of the important points is that roof panels take up much less space than fixed panels. If cadmium panels are used in such power plants, the area required for one megawatt decreases to 1.2 square meters. Of course, this represents a significant advantage in terms of space usage. The point to be considered here is that the panels placed on the roof share the same usage area with the usage purposes under the roof. The reason why the effective area in question is not zero is the surface area required to extract the minerals used in the manufacturing of the panels. Likewise, natural gas cycle power plants can produce one megawatt per year in an area of around one square meter. In this sense, the type of power plant that requires the least surface area stands out as nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants can produce 1 megawatt of energy annually using an area of 0.3 square meters.

The data in question is important data for legislators or state planners. After all, a country has a limited surface area, and among the activities that need to be carried out in this surface area, energy production is one among others. For those living in the country, there is a need for agricultural production, drinking and potable water, the maintenance of natural life, that is, plant and animal existence, forests to store carbon dioxide in the air and against climate and erosion, mountains to store snow falling during the winter months, and many other natural and human civilization activities. . For this reason, optimization of the used surface area is a necessity in energy production, distribution and use. When we look at the above data, even though the lowest field appears to be in nuclear, we know that the field and space-time equation in which the effects of this technology spread in case of any accident are quite harmful. Efforts to clean up the effects and remnants of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986, located within the borders of the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (today's Ukraine), are still continuing. Studies are also ongoing for the effects of the explosion of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, which has newer and more advanced technology, in the 2011 tsunami disaster. Therefore, the technologies used by nuclear energy facilities should be the most advanced and the locations of these facilities within the country should be determined by experts and their environmental impact should be at least at a controllable level.

Investments that will be more efficient and less risky than nuclear power plants are solar panels covering roofs. These solar panels are very efficient, as they take up a small amount of space and increase the usage efficiency of the buildings on which they are placed. Increasing the efficiency of solar panels should be one of the important priorities. For this reason, there is a need for well-trained engineers and technicians, as well as incentives to activate these investments. Investment should be made in facilities that will carry out not only the assembly part of the panels but also, and above all, the manufacturing and development of photovoltaic cells. Today, we must say once again that the manufacturing of solar panel photovoltaic cells imported from the Far East and especially from China, both in Turkey and Romania, is a high priority. The demand in this area will be much more noticeable in the coming period with the electrification of transportation vehicles. We end today's article by saying that legislators, investors, energy market actors and universities that educate young people need to work much more in this field.