Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Big Solar threatens existence of rare desert tortoise

HUMAN EVENTS

The battle between environmental groups and the fledgling green energy industry has prompted a lawsuit against the government to block the multi-billion dollar Calico Solar Power project, which would cover 4,000 acres of the turtle’s vital habitat.

Comment:

There are no perfect solutions for energy, even so called green energy.  The main weakness for solar is that it requires a lot of land.  In this case 2.5 square miles for a solar plant.  At best, it will only supply energy for a few hours a day as the sun shines.  But a 1 gigawatt LFTR would take up about a football field's worth of land.

How much land is a football field?  I calculate 1.36 acres.  Let's see: 4000 acres compared to 1.36 acres. Almost a 3000 to 1 ratio of land required for the solar plant which produces far less energy and is available for a lot less of the time.  Such a large requirement of land shows two very grave disadvantages of solar.

Not to mention that green groups are fighting the installation even though it is supposed to be green energy.

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