35 x 35 km sq Solar Thermal to power Australia ? It's just conceptual but gives you an idea of scale and potential of Solar Thermal energy. Secondary insolation sites would increase the land mass required, but it still looks encouraging for the future of Solar Thermal energy in Australia.
Australian Weather Bureau's Solar Radiation map;
Bureau of Meteorology - Solar Exposure annual and monthly
This shows that a very significant part of Australia averages around 18 - 21 megajoules daily, say 19.5 mJ average, I think being around 5.4 kwh per day.
The high value sites of around 24 - 27 megajoules daily cover the top half of the country, say average being around 25.5 mJ, I think being around 7 kwh per day.
Melbourne, Sydney , Canberra all appear to be within about 1000 km of secondary solar radiation sites. Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth are already within this secondary site boundary and appear within 1000 km of the high value solar radiation sights. That's well over half the nations population covered. Darwin lies within a high value sight. The rest of the nation bar Tasmania,
falls closely to, or within high value sites.
Tasmania has more hydro and wind energy to help make up for lack of solar insolation and is relatively small population wise. i.e. about half a million out of Australia's approx 21 million, being around 2.3% of the total population.
re; Tasmania