how many homes trump's controversial solar-paneled border wall could power

throughout his presidential campaign, donald trump controversially stated that he would keep true to his word by building a wall on the mexican border. on june 6, 2017, he pitched to republican leaders a proposal which would see the wall covered with solar panels in order to generate electricity. this would then cover the costs of construction and maintenance, says the american president.

in response to this statement, thomas gleason, managing partner of gleason partners LLC — a las vegas-based architecture firm — has submitted a proposal to the department of homeland security which would deliver trump’s wish — providing solar-paneled walls. 

gleason claims that the wall would generate enough power to pay for its construction in under 20 years, however this depends on a number of different variables. according to the BBC, over 200 companies have responded, with one firm stating that the solar border wall would generate approximately 7.28 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity each day (2,657.2 GWh per year) and power 220,000 average-sized homes annually. 

other estimates reach as high as 8,431 GWh annually. the electricity production in total would be worth approximately $106 million per year. without considering the multi-billion-dollar construction cost of the wall itself, the solar array installation could cost between $1.4 billion and $4.2 billion. these figures vary from each company, however trump’s pitch has opened up discussion and debate regarding the contentious subject. 

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