I did this analysis to indicate that desert solar electricity is
only about 1/10th as good as GEO or Solarsychronous SPS = solar
power satellite. One half gigawatt is enough power for a large
city. Very large cities need several gigawatts. Lets consider 12
square kilometers = 3 kilometers, East and West by 4 kilometers,
North and South. There is a solar power tower close to the
Southeast and Southwest corners of the property. They are about
200 meters tall. The land slopes up about 2% from South to
North, but is otherwise quite flat. More slope would be better,
but more is almost always hilly which is bad. You can see ideal
sites are rare. Homes and ranches are practical except very
close to the two solar power towers, but maximum height of trees
and structures is typically 4 meters, but only 2 or 3 meters in
a few spots. Exceptions are the 50,000 steerable mirror towers
which range from 12 to 20 meters tall, a few of them with a wind
turbine above the mirror. The mirrors average 100 square meters
and produce