The factory in Buffalo is going to produce the solar roofs for Tesla (who now own solar city), google 'Gigafactory 2' for more.
If we assume (because I cannot find proper sources in 3 min) that you can make methane from CO2 and water at 50% efficiency, 5500 tons of propellant, or a thousand tons of methane for a full BFR launch embodies at 4.4*10^7J/Kg, 4.4*10^13J, one launch every two days or so.So, for a P2P launch pad, you need of the order of a 40GW solar plant to do five launches a day, a patch around 15km in diameter, which is quite large, even for texas.
Just to put some $$$$ on the above pics...Each box/pallet of PV panels in the above truck has 26 pcs at about $250+ each inside... Call it $6500+ each... and looks like the trailer is kinda full of em..
Quote from: John Alan on 12/11/2017 04:52 pmJust to put some $$$$ on the above pics...Each box/pallet of PV panels in the above truck has 26 pcs at about $250+ each inside... Call it $6500+ each... and looks like the trailer is kinda full of em.. The number (26*28 (guess as to how many boxes)*250W) = 180kW, or 700kWh/day or so (av), 29kW, is enough to fuel BFS in a couple of decades or so.
They're trying to catch up from last week's apocalyptic winter storm of well over 1/4 inch of snow.
But still... back figure the value of the power and PV still looks silly on paper to me... payback wise
Quote from: John Alan on 12/11/2017 10:44 pmBut still... back figure the value of the power and PV still looks silly on paper to me... payback wiseHow much power can the current electric grid deliver to Boca Chica? Some combination of backup generator + batteries + solar might be the expedient solution while they wait for bigger wires to be run...
Quote from: launchwatcher on 12/12/2017 01:28 amQuote from: John Alan on 12/11/2017 10:44 pmBut still... back figure the value of the power and PV still looks silly on paper to me... payback wiseHow much power can the current electric grid deliver to Boca Chica? Some combination of backup generator + batteries + solar might be the expedient solution while they wait for bigger wires to be run...And solar power will work a lot better in sunny Boca Chica than Central Illinois.
Quote from: RonM on 12/12/2017 02:23 amAnd solar power will work a lot better in sunny Boca Chica than Central Illinois.It does slightly better... As I found this evening... not as much as you think... however...My fictional 10K watt system improves by about 500 KWh a year yield... moving it there.I plugged Nomadd"s stated 686.4kw nameplate system installed value and zip 78521 into PVwatts... http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/Using 7 cents a KWh as value... Not the gold mine it seems is it... (fixed racking due south at 26* tilt... premium panels... open racking... 7 cents)On edit...80 crates is about a half million dollars in PV panels alone... Like I said... breaks even in about 10 years...
And solar power will work a lot better in sunny Boca Chica than Central Illinois.
Pic that I took yesterday.
They're also doing the lot to the west of the dishes, so 2.5 acres or so...
The Tesla guy in charge asked me if they were starting work too early in the morning. They're trying to catch up from last week's apocalyptic winter storm of well over 1/4 inch of snow. All being supervised by a local resident.
Did they say what the big pipes by the control center area were for?
Quote from: Dave G on 12/12/2017 01:37 pmDid they say what the big pipes by the control center area were for? I haven't talked to any SpaceX guys lately. Just Tesla/SolarCity. The three things on the right are tanks. My guess was that the big steel pipe was for sinking the 3 foot piles.