It’s still too large of a surface area for anything other than large on-ground installations. When you get to potential use cases like transport it still matters a lot how efficient the panels are. Let’s say running a cargo ship with on board panels for example
Maximum insolation is about 1kw/square meter. Assuming a very favorable TOE/kwh equivalent (11.6 mwh/toe) and 150-225 tons of fuel oil a day, we’re talking energy consumption of 1.7-2.6 gigawatt hrs per day to power a container ships main propulsion.
Assuming very favorable 10 hr insolation times, and 25% solar conversion efficiency, you’d need something like 680000 square meters - or 168 acres - worth of panels to even come close. Even with 100% efficient panels, it would be over 43 acres worth.
A Panamax container ship is only 2.3 acres in size, which equates to 9.5 megawatts of solar insolation peak.
So you’d need between 20-73 times more surface area, and very favorable conditions.
Not to mention batteries to smooth all that out. And a chance of storms. Or not having panels aligned perfectly.
Fossil fuels are incredibly energy dense, and these ships have to burn insane amounts of them already in very efficient ways to do what they do.
