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Been investigating capacity factors for solar farms in New York. The math isn’t hard, as you just have to get production data from the Electricity data browser, divided by the number of hours in a month, and then by the nameplate capacity of the power plant.
For example, for DG Bethlehem Solar West at Selkirk Railyard is a 1,000 kW nameplate industrial solar facility, but in reality the output is far below nameplate as there is night time, clouds, and snow. This facility has a capacity factor of 18.7% or about 187 kW average output. But the capacity factor rises to closer to 30% during the June and July but falls to around 8% in December and January.
A comparison could be made to PSEG Bethlehem Energy Center, a natural gas plant with a nameplate capacity of 893,100 kW nameplate with a capacity factor of 69.2% or an average output of 580,731 kW. This could be higher, but it’s a mid-market plant so they shut it down or run it at reduced output during times of low-energy demand.
To generate as much electricity PSEG Bethlehem Energy Center over the April 2016 – December 2019 time period, it would have taken 3,100 industrial solar facilities the size of DG Bethlehem Solar West.