"A 1 ha (100 m x 100 m) sugar cane plantation will yield from 7,000-8,000 L of ethanol per year, allowing a medium size flex-fuel car to drive about 54,000 km/year in a best-case scenario. If the same area is covered with a dense array of low-tilt commercially available solar PV modules at 20% conversion efficiency and a moderate 1,500 kWh/kWp per year energy yield, the electricity produced over 1 year on the same 1 ha will allow the electric version of the same medium-size car to drive over 18 million km/year (about 350 times more!). The reasons for this overwhelming difference are the fact that solar PV conversion is 50-100 times more efficient than typical photosynthesis efficiency, and also the fact that the efficiency of electric motors is about three times more than internal combustion engines."
