From: "Kevin Robert Dean" <qualiall at union.org.za>
> But how much land is needed? I'm guessing we'd have to cut
> down a lot of trees.
http://www.awea.org/faq/land.html
How Much Land is Required for Large Wind Plants?
With today's wind turbine technology, wind power could supply 20% of this country's electricity, according to a recent study by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL). Today's technology exploits high-wind locations--those in wind power class 5 or greater--with average annual wind speeds of approximately 16 mph and higher at a height of 30 meters. To provide 20% of America's electricity, 560,000 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, only 0.6% of the land of the lower 48 states would have to be developed with wind power plants. This area, about 16,000 square miles, is about the size of four counties in Montana, distributed over the entire United States. Furthermore, less than 5% of this land would be physically occupied by wind turbines, electrical equipment, and access roads. Most existing land use, such as farming and ranching, could remain as it is now.
The PNL study found that almost every region of the country has some areas of good wind energy resources. In fact, the Northeast, Northwest, Southwest, and Atlantic Coastal regions all contain significant wind energy resources. And some states, such as those that lie on the Great Plains from Texas to North Dakota, have a huge electricity-generating potential from the wind. The wind potential from each of these states far exceeds its current electricity consumption.
Source: America Takes Stock of a Vast Energy Resource, 1992 brochure from the Utility Wind Interest Group. For further information, contact Technical Inquiry Service, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Attn: UWIG Task Group, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401, USA, phone (303) 275-4099.
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Land Use Comparison: Wind & Hydroelectric
Energy Source Land Use Intensity Ref. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Hydro 160-9000 sq-km/peak GW 1 Wind 47-160 sq-km/peak GW 1 Hydro 0.75 sq-km/GWh 2 Wind 0.12 sq-km/GWh 2
[1] Larson, E. D., 1993. "Technology for Electricity and Fuels from Biomass," Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 18:570-9.
[2] Pimentel, D., et al., 1994. "Renewable Energy: Economic and Environmental Issues," Bioscience 44:536-47.