Location of Land-Intensive Renewable Power Sites Stirs Controversy
Fundamentally, solar and wind power plants are land-intensive. Simple equation: solar radiation intensity is about 1.3 kW per square meter at the earth’s surface. If you want 1000 MW, at 10 percent net conversion efficiency, you have to cover 7 million square meters, or 1,700 (net) to 2,500 (gross) acres (4 square miles) per power plant. Not a lot, but enough to get people pretty riled up. Quite a bit more land will be needed for support facilities and transmission lines, or perhaps for thermal power storage if we’re talking concentrating solar power. We’re going to have to learn to live with both points of view. That’s what politics is all about.
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