A SIXTH? I don't see how that can be necessary. They might use that much land because it's worthless desert or something like that.
Where I am there is not exactly a solar farm, but there is a maybe half megawatt array on a flat canopy over a parking lot. This is in an area of expensive real estate, and there is almost no wasted space.
As for spacing to avoid shading when the sun is low, obviously that is an optimization problem and in all likelihood they have worked it out. Don't forget that when the sun is low, the flat array produces almost no power.
Where I am there is not exactly a solar farm, but there is a maybe half megawatt array on a flat canopy over a parking lot. This is in an area of expensive real estate, and there is almost no wasted space.
As for spacing to avoid shading when the sun is low, obviously that is an optimization problem and in all likelihood they have worked it out. Don't forget that when the sun is low, the flat array produces almost no power.