Quote:
Originally Posted by tuccillo
It is not a puzzler to me. The energy density of wind turbine farms is about an order of magnitude less than solar farms, IIRC. It takes a lot more land to support wind turbines than solar panels. I was responding to your post about the area of solar panels needed to generate the 4T kWhs that the US generates each year. I really don't care about the other stuff you brought up.
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Actually, I think you might have that exactly backwards. According to this article by "Elemental Green", "one wind turbine can generate the same amount of electricity per kWh as about 48,704 solar panels." A single windmill takes about one acre. 48,704 solar panels would consume 19.26 acres. And windmills can even make electricity at night!
Wind vs. Solar — Which Power Source Is Better?.
But the really interesting statistic is the equivalent Kwh of a single natural gas well, which also takes about one acre: The average well produces 20 million cubic ft per day. At .29 Kwh to the cubic foot, that means a single acre of natural gas production gives us 5.8 MILLION kWhs PER DAY!
Personally, I prefer the option that doesn't require leveling forests and mountains and ruining the ecology of entire states. If that means the world's average temperature is 2 degrees higher 100 years for now, I still call that a win.