Final answer:
To estimate the land area needed for solar panels to meet Arizona's energy consumption, calculate the annual energy consumption in watt-hours, divide by the product of the panel's effective power production (accounting for 15% efficiency) and the annual hours, and then convert the result from m² to km².
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine the land area needed to provide Arizona's annual energy consumption using solar panels, we need to consider the average energy production of the solar panels, the efficiency at which they convert sunlight to electricity, and the total annual energy consumption of Arizona.
Assuming the solar panels have an efficiency of 15% and produce an average of 200 W/m², they effectively produce 30 W/m² (15% of 200 W/m²). If we have the annual energy consumption for Arizona, we can convert it to watt-hours to match the units of power production from the panels. To estimate the land area, we simply divide Arizona's annual energy consumption in watt-hours by the product of the effective power production per square meter and the number of hours in a year (to get yearly production per meter).
The final area can be converted from square meters to square kilometers by dividing by 1,000,000 (since 1 km² is equal to 1,000,000 m²).