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Electricity generation in the world of nuclear power industry 85

Fig. 3.20 “Proper” installation of PV panels: (A) Photovoltaic panels installed on roof of house.
(B) Photovoltaic panels installed on roof of parking lot [1].
Photos by I. Pioro, Bavaria, Germany.

Fig. 3.21 Photo of 240-MW el Rance tidal power plant (10MW el 24units) (France). The plant
supplies on average 96MW el with capacity factor of 40%, providing annual output of
600GWh [15]. The barrage is 750m long. The plant portion of the dam is 332.5m long.
2
The tidal basin measures 22.5km .
Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, author/username Dani 7C3.

(tidal and wave energy). Fig. 3.11 shows the average wind speeds across the United
States, and Fig. 3.18—the average solar radiation across the United States.
Two very important parameters [1,2] of any power plant are:

(1) Overall (gross) or net efficiency: Gross efficiency of a unit during a given period of time is
the ratio of the gross electrical energy generated by a unit to the energy consumed during the
same period by the same unit. The difference between gross and net efficiencies is internal
needs for electrical energy of a power plant, which might be not so small (5% or even
more) and