3.3 MWh per year is well under the energy consumption of ONE home, not 1000.

@ Jim
The accepted average for one home\'s energy consumption is 8,900 kWh/year (data from US Energy Information Agency) The solar tunnel according to the Straits times News website (posted 2 days before this one) energy output is 3,300 MWh or 3,300,000 kWh. Therefore it would power aprox 400 homes, I suspect Enfinity has used \"favourable\" data to provide a 1,000 Wow number, and the Author of this article has made a copy/paste error missing some zeros, the internet is becomes Chinese whispers because of one sloppy Author, I\'ve seen a few websites quote this article already.

@Neon
The average home\'s energy in belgium is only about 3500KWh/year, so the favourable data is actually real data they used. And the 3500 is already counted as a relatively high usage. A small user only uses about 600KWH according to statistics.

I believe that that you shouldn\'t apply US statistics for an European country. I can\'t cite a source but Europe\'s Energy Portal assumes an annual household consumption of 3500kWh which would make the \"1000 households\" a plausible statement albeit still rounded up.

In Belgium the average annual electricityconsumption of one home is arround 3600kWh. (heating not included, this is a mix of natural gas or oil) So the 1000 homes figure is a littlebit optimistic but reasonable. I personally use 6500kWh each jear (heating included, alle electric), it\'s all about making choises and using the right technology for each task.
On the other side we do have a less intelligent system to distribute the cost of this installation.
Also check Lithium Titanaat - Lithium Iron Phosfate (LTO-LFP) batteries, they found a solution at the TUM in Münich.

Two things:
1. Jim Fiske... Same Jim Fikse as in Fiske racing wheels? If so, Hi!
2. \'One Days\' worth of train travel? Is that really worth the investment of $20m USD? I think it will take a few decades past those solar cell\'s lifetime to repay that...?

@Neon - the source link to the company website (Enfinity) quotes 3.3 MWh, not the author of this article: http://www.enfinitycorp.com/media-center/news-releases/europes-first-green-train

Enfinity corporation is a US based Company, what\'s more NO ONE gave a source regarding household energy consumption in Belgium according to (International Energy Agency (IEA Statistics © OECD/IEA, http://www.iea.org/stats/index.asp), Energy Statistics and Balances of Non-OECD Countries and Energy Statistics of OECD Countries.) Electricity consumption per capita in Beglium is 8,523 kWh source: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met_y=eg_use_elec_kh_pc&idim=country:BEL&dl=en&hl=en&q=electricity consumption in belgium So saying electricity consumption at 8,900kWh per household is more than fair.
@Christopher - it could be a typo on their site http://www.therecycletimes.com/2011/06/solar-tunnel-project-connects-paris-and-amsterdam-through-solar-powered-euro-trains/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20070013-54/high-speed-euro-train-system-gets-solar-power/ http://www.rail.co/2011/06/07/high-speed-rail-tunnel-in-belgium-gets-16000-solar-panels/ I could find more....
3.3MWh/year for a $20Mil solar project is a con, 3,300MWh/year is more reasonable, I found a suppler selling 245Wp panels for $404 they were near identical to the panels in the photos, and lets say we use $10mil for the solar panels and Belgium gets on average 4.3hrs of sun per day, we purchase 25,000 panels rated at 245Wp, for arguments sake the panels only output under half at 120W
25,000*120= 3,000,000 Wp 3,000,000*4.3 = 12,900,000 Wh/day 12,900,000*365.3(days)= 4712.37*10^6 Wh/year or 4,712 MWh/year
1 Megawatt = 1*10^6 Watts
................................................................................................... source for the supplier: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/441089543/245wp_solar_panel.html

We use 4500 kWHr a year, but we\'re Flemish-American, not Belgian. The key is not using electricity just to heat up things. Very inefficient.

@ jason mayers The reason it is build in the Flemish part is because they over subsidize this stupidity for every megawatt they get 350 Eur * 3300 = being 1.617000 dollar a year. Together with the investment deduction and the notary deduction it is paid back to them in 5 to 6 years. and makes them a revenue of 15 to 20 % a year on investment. Of course the Flemish consumer pays the bill again.