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Wednesday's Energy Absurdity: This is how much land you must condemn to get 1/2 of a standard gas or coal power plant out of solar

David Blackmon
May 16, 2024

Wednesday's Energy Absurdity: This is how much land you must condemn to get 1/2 of a standard gas or coal power plant out of solar

The video below, posted yesterday by Wide Awake Media, provides an aerial view of Western Downs Green Power Hub, the largest solar power plant in Australia. The WDGPH condemns more than 4,000 acres of arable farmland and contains more than 1 million solar panels across its vast complex.

Video at link

The developers and local officials boast that the plant will be capable of producing 460 MW of electricity at peak times on days the sun happens to be shining. That's what you get for sacrificing the amazing food production potential of 4,000 acres of arable land in Australia.

By contrast, an average natural gas or coal power plant produces 1 GW of electricity, and does it 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, regardless of the weather conditions. Such plants do have to be taken offline several weeks each year for maintenance, and, as we saw in Winter Storm Uri in Texas, can go offline in extremely severe weather events. (Of course, pretty much all the solar in Texas fell offline during that storm as well.)

The typical natural gas plant in Texas occupies perhaps 6-8 acres of land, the typical coal plant perhaps double that.

It's a big, big difference that boosters of solar don't like to talk about, but there it is.

That is all.

https://blackmon.substack.com/p/wednesdays-energy-absurdity-this?publication_id=712558&post_id=144687043&isFreemail=true&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true