Data
Power generated per square metre, by way of making electricity (Nøland et al. 2022)
Average electric power generated per square metre of land or sea, in watts, for ten ways of making electricity, from Table 16 of Nøland et al. (2022), who measured 8 to 451 sites per source on satellite images: the median, the mean and the standard deviation across sites. Nuclear includes the plant's safety area but not uranium mining; wind counts the whole area inside the farm's perimeter; rooftop solar is per square metre of roof, not land.
Latest value
3.84W/m²
Sites studied worldwide (8 to 451 per source; rooftop solar: 39 countries), 2022. Version Scientific Reports 12: 21280 (2022).
As published
“Wind (offshore) 3.84 3.89 ± 1.61 0.034 0.034 ± 0.014 44.3 11”
Power density of electricity generation (Nøland et al. 2022), Table 16, p. 20. Checked word for word against the stored copy of the document every time the data is rebuilt.
Every value
| Way of making electricity | Statistic | Period | Value (W/m²) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nuclear (plant and its safety area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Nuclear": n = 159 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Nuclear": n = 159 sites. | 2022 | 587.17 | final |
| Nuclear (plant and its safety area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Nuclear": n = 159 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Nuclear": n = 159 sites. | 2022 | 764.69 | final |
| Nuclear (plant and its safety area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Nuclear": n = 159 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Nuclear": n = 159 sites. | 2022 | 549.69 | final |
| Hydroelectric (reservoir surface)Table 16, p. 20, row "Hydro": n = 451 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Hydro": n = 451 sites. | 2022 | 4.26 | final |
| Hydroelectric (reservoir surface)Table 16, p. 20, row "Hydro": n = 451 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Hydro": n = 451 sites. | 2022 | 33.73 | final |
| Hydroelectric (reservoir surface)Table 16, p. 20, row "Hydro": n = 451 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Hydro": n = 451 sites. | 2022 | 157.28 | final |
| Concentrating solar powerTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (CSP)": n = 27 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (CSP)": n = 27 sites. | 2022 | 14.45 | final |
| Concentrating solar powerTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (CSP)": n = 27 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (CSP)": n = 27 sites. | 2022 | 20.33 | final |
| Concentrating solar powerTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (CSP)": n = 27 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (CSP)": n = 27 sites. | 2022 | 12.74 | final |
| Solar farms (on land and floating)Table 16, p. 20, row "Solar (PV)": n = 17 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (PV)": n = 17 sites. | 2022 | 9.13 | final |
| Solar farms (on land and floating)Table 16, p. 20, row "Solar (PV)": n = 17 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (PV)": n = 17 sites. | 2022 | 9.91 | final |
| Solar farms (on land and floating)Table 16, p. 20, row "Solar (PV)": n = 17 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (PV)": n = 17 sites. | 2022 | 3.28 | final |
| WaveTable 16, p. 20, row "Wave": n = 11 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wave": n = 11 sites. | 2022 | 9.73 | final |
| WaveTable 16, p. 20, row "Wave": n = 11 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wave": n = 11 sites. | 2022 | 7.94 | final |
| WaveTable 16, p. 20, row "Wave": n = 11 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wave": n = 11 sites. | 2022 | 2.77 | final |
| Geothermal (including the area between wells)Table 16, p. 20, row "Geothermal": n = 8 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Geothermal": n = 8 sites. | 2022 | 5.56 | final |
| Geothermal (including the area between wells)Table 16, p. 20, row "Geothermal": n = 8 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Geothermal": n = 8 sites. | 2022 | 4.88 | final |
| Geothermal (including the area between wells)Table 16, p. 20, row "Geothermal": n = 8 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Geothermal": n = 8 sites. | 2022 | 3.39 | final |
| Rooftop solar (per square metre of roof)Table 16, p. 20, row "Solar (rooftop)": n = 39 countries (Table 9, p. 12, gives the same values with n = 40). Power per square metre of roof, from cumulative installations per country (the paper's reference 5, Capellán-Pérez et al. 2017), not land. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (rooftop)": n = 39 countries (Table 9, p. 12, gives the same values with n = 40). Power per square metre of roof, from cumulative installations per country (the paper's reference 5, Capellán-Pérez et al. 2017), not land. | 2022 | 4.17 | final |
| Rooftop solar (per square metre of roof)Table 16, p. 20, row "Solar (rooftop)": n = 39 countries (Table 9, p. 12, gives the same values with n = 40). Power per square metre of roof, from cumulative installations per country (the paper's reference 5, Capellán-Pérez et al. 2017), not land. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (rooftop)": n = 39 countries (Table 9, p. 12, gives the same values with n = 40). Power per square metre of roof, from cumulative installations per country (the paper's reference 5, Capellán-Pérez et al. 2017), not land. | 2022 | 4.58 | final |
| Rooftop solar (per square metre of roof)Table 16, p. 20, row "Solar (rooftop)": n = 39 countries (Table 9, p. 12, gives the same values with n = 40). Power per square metre of roof, from cumulative installations per country (the paper's reference 5, Capellán-Pérez et al. 2017), not land. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Solar (rooftop)": n = 39 countries (Table 9, p. 12, gives the same values with n = 40). Power per square metre of roof, from cumulative installations per country (the paper's reference 5, Capellán-Pérez et al. 2017), not land. | 2022 | 2.25 | final |
| Offshore wind (whole farm area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Wind (offshore)": n = 11 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wind (offshore)": n = 11 sites. | 2022 | 3.84 | final |
| Offshore wind (whole farm area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Wind (offshore)": n = 11 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wind (offshore)": n = 11 sites. | 2022 | 3.89 | final |
| Offshore wind (whole farm area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Wind (offshore)": n = 11 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wind (offshore)": n = 11 sites. | 2022 | 1.61 | final |
| TidalTable 16, p. 20, row "Tidal": n = 12 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Tidal": n = 12 sites. | 2022 | 2.29 | final |
| TidalTable 16, p. 20, row "Tidal": n = 12 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Tidal": n = 12 sites. | 2022 | 2.84 | final |
| TidalTable 16, p. 20, row "Tidal": n = 12 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Tidal": n = 12 sites. | 2022 | 2.49 | final |
| Onshore wind (whole farm area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Wind (onshore)": n = 148 sites. | Median across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wind (onshore)": n = 148 sites. | 2022 | 1.49 | final |
| Onshore wind (whole farm area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Wind (onshore)": n = 148 sites. | Mean across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wind (onshore)": n = 148 sites. | 2022 | 2.12 | final |
| Onshore wind (whole farm area)Table 16, p. 20, row "Wind (onshore)": n = 148 sites. | Standard deviation across sitesTable 16, p. 20, row "Wind (onshore)": n = 148 sites. | 2022 | 2.06 | final |
Where it comes from
- Producer
- Nøland, Auxepaules, Rousset, Perney and Falletti (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Grenoble INP); published in Scientific Reports (Springer Nature) · Power density of electricity generation (Nøland et al. 2022)
- Version
- Scientific Reports 12: 21280 (2022)
- Fetched
- 2026-10-08 (automatically), 2,802,223 bytes
- Fingerprint
- sha256 c411c5ee0ce374c81c75ece0e98ed8d0c73c54bea62ff8fe709ca1c50aecb2deETag "ac30e4d311cdc2d3ea16a376d6c6d768" · Last-Modified Mon, 04 Dec 2023 14:01:58 GMT
- Copies
- No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
- Cite the producer
- Nøland, J.K., Auxepaules, J., Rousset, A. et al. Spatial energy density of large-scale electricity generation from power sources worldwide. Sci Rep 12, 21280 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25341-9
What was done to it
Read Table 16 from page 20 of the article PDF (sha256 c411c5ee0ce3…): its caption and headings had to be as expected, and its twelve source lines exactly Nuclear, Natural gas, Hydro, Solar (CSP), Solar (PV), Wave, Geothermal, Solar (rooftop), Wind (offshore), Tidal, Wind (onshore) and Biomass, in that order.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/noland_2022.py · code sha256 ee8544fbd31ec7be… · inputs c411c5ee0ce3…
Published the median, the mean and the standard deviation of mean specific power in watts per square metre for ten sources, exactly as printed. The annual energy density columns (the same quantity in terawatt-hours per square kilometre) and the capacity factors are not published.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/noland_2022.py · code sha256 ee8544fbd31ec7be… · inputs c411c5ee0ce3…
Checked that the article agrees with itself: nuclear equals Table 7's line including the safety area, offshore and onshore wind equal Table 11, rooftop solar equals Table 9's world line.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/noland_2022.py · code sha256 ee8544fbd31ec7be… · inputs c411c5ee0ce3…
Left out natural gas, whose Table 16 value is the upper estimate of Table 6, built on the IEA's World Energy Outlook 2022 (reference 35; both checked in the PDF), and biomass, which is van Zalk and Behrens (2018)'s value, whose own licence has not been confirmed.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/noland_2022.py · code sha256 ee8544fbd31ec7be… · inputs c411c5ee0ce3…
What it covers
- Geography
- Sites studied worldwide (8 to 451 per source; rooftop solar: 39 countries)
- Basis
- Mean electric power generated (annual energy over the hours of a year) per square metre of the area each site occupies: the plant and its safety area for nuclear, the reservoir surface for hydroelectric dams, the area inside the perimeter for wind, wave and tidal farms, the area between wells for geothermal, and the roof surface for rooftop solar. Fuel supply land is not counted. The period is the year of publication.
- Unit
- watts per square metre (W/m²)