Solar Forest. Surface Area and Wind Power. Click for bigger version. Credit: Land Art Generator Initiative. Putting Things in Perspective The picture above has been making the rounds of the internet lately (sadly it hasn't always been attributed to the Land Art Generator Initiative). It's a bit similar to things we posted aboutin the past and represents the total surface area that would be required to power the whole world in 2030 using nothing but solar or wind power (see below for wind power pic). All the assumptions used to create the solar power pic above (you can click on it to see a bigger version) can be found here, but here are the main ones: They did the same thing with wind power (again, you can click on the pic above to see a bigger version): A 5 MW turbine can be expected to produce 17 GWh per year (they are 40% effective from their peak rated capacity - 5 MW x 365 x 24 = 43.8 GWh).
Of course, nobody's suggesting creating a kind of "clean energy monoculture". Magenn Power Inc. How to Make a Solar Power Generator. BioPower Systems.