The Gladstone power-station produced in one day 35,349 MWh of electricity with an average station output for the day of 1,472.9 MW.
Large scale solar farms with tracking systems typically need about 0.5 hectare (1.25 acres) per MW depending on the technology. However they only produce for about 8hrs per day and have a “capacity factor” of about 25% at best.
This means that a 1MW solar farm can only produce a maximum of 1MW x 24hrs x 25% = 6MWh per day.
Therefore to produce the same output that the Gladstone power-station did on one day would require a solar farm of 35,349MWh / 6MWh = 5,892 MW and take up about 3,000 hectares or 7,500 acres of space.
Currently the total installed solar capacity in Australia is 10,131MW including rooftop solar.
That really puts it into perspective.
