And is an area of 1 km^2 for a solar power tower enough to produce energy for five houses? can you make an approximation of how much it could supply?

Best answer:

Answer by Helmut
At 40 % efficiency and 1252 W/m^2 the maximum available energy for a square kilometer is
(0.4)(1,252 W/m^2)(10^6 m^2) = 500.8 MW if the entire array is normal to the incident sunlight on a clear day.

The average dwelling has electrical service of 100A at 240 VAC, or 24 KW, so 5 houses would need about 120 KW.

For energy transmission you need a (very large) capacitor or battery bank for energy storage, a motor-generator set (90% efficient as opposed to < 50% efficient for an inverter), a step-up transformer and step-down transformers. Note that atmospheric attenuation of sunlight increases with both latitude and time from local Noon. Even on a clear day sunlight is available for at most 12 hr/da. It is also extremely expensive to "track" the Sun (keep the array perpendicular to the sunlight), especially so for such a large array.

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