"Same with wind power, probably not enough real estate for that and solar."
Solar would take 10,000 square miles. Just the size of my county, or Vermont, or 1/4 of the roof and pavement space in the cities and burbs. Same estimates for solar thermal plants in the deserts.
It hasn't been space we've been lacking; it's will and leadership.
Solar and Wind Energy: Vast and Untapped
The U.S. renewable energy resource base is vast and practically untapped. Solar and wind energy are each plentiful enough to supply the entire electricity requirement of the United States.
• Available wind energy resources in 12 Midwestern and Rocky Mountain states equal about 2.5 times the entire electricity production of the United States.
• North Dakota, Texas, Kansas, South Dakota, Montana, and Nebraska each have wind energy potential greater than the electricity produced by all 103 U.S. nuclear power plants.
• Solar energy resources on just one percent of the area of the United States are about three times as large as wind energy, if production is focused in the high insolation areas in the Southwest and West.
• Just the parking lots and rooftops in the United States could provide most of the U.S. electricity supply. This also has the advantage of avoiding the need for transmission line expansion, though some strengthening of the distribution infrastructure may be needed.
carbonfreenuclearfree.org
You probably already knew that, but did you know this? Just 100 square miles* of CSP installations would supply 100 percent of the U.S. electric grid. That's being conservative: Ausra's chairman David Mills pegs the figure at 92 square miles. Put similar installations in Morocco for Europe and the Gobi desert for China and we have our golden opportunity -- our last chance -- of keeping those poles under ice and our cities above water.
* I think they mean 100 miles square, not 100 Sq. mi.
How much land is 100 square miles?
About the same as all the land disturbed by coal mines.
About one-sixth of the area devoted to lawns.
About 1/15 of the area once devoted to raising feed for horses.
Less than 1/30 of the area devoted to parks, wilderness, and wildlife refuges.
Message 24697180
A utility-scale wind facility on flat terrain requires about 50 acres of land per megawatt of installed generating capacity. On rolling terrain, like the hills and ridgelines of New England, the required area can be as low as two acres per megawatt. While this is a somewhat larger land area than required by the total needed for a fossil fuel ower plant, a very small portion of that land (two percent or less) is actually occupied by turbines, access roads, and other equipment—leaving the vast majority of the land free for compatible or existing uses such as farming or recreation. For example, to generate about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity from wind power by 2020, approximately 8,000 square miles of land—an area roughly the size of Massachusetts—would be required.[15] More than 98 percent of this land, however, would still be available for other uses, leaving the actual footprint of these turbines at about 100 square miles, about the same land area as Greater Boston (inside I-95) but spread across the entire nation. Wind turbines can also be removed if necessary, leaving no lasting impact on the surrounding environment.
ucsusa.org |
