Question

A pine tree can produce 0.50 tons of wood in 15 years. The fuel heating value of this wood is 21 MJ/kg. The tree has a canopy that is 8 m across and collects solar energy for an average of 5 months (or 5/12 of the time in a year) out of the year (this includes nighttime and winter). The solar energy incident on this pine tree is 220 W/m2. a) What is this tree's efficiency for converting sunlight into wood heating value?

b) how large an area of pine woods is necessary to supply a 30 MW power plant in a sustainable process?

Answer 1