The Sahara Desert is a very sunny place. The capacity factor for solar PV power there could be as high as 40%, rather than the 10% of more temperate locations used in creating Figures 12.4 and 12.5....

The Sahara Desert is a very sunny place. The capacity factor for solar PV power there could be as high as 40%, rather than the 10% of more temperate locations used in creating Figures 12.4 and 12.5.

(a) Re-plot by hand the yellow ellipses for solar PV, single crystal, and polysilicon on copies of these two figures to show how this changes the relative material, area, energy, and capital intensities.

(b) Do the same with Figure 12.6 (the changed capacity factor increases the delivered energy per year by a factor of 4 but leaves the construction energy per kWnom unchanged). What is the energy payback time for the two power systems now?