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Here is a couple of square miles of solar panels in the Mojave Desert. If you zoom out, you'll find quite a bit more nearby. Whether or not you count this as la

Here is a couple of square miles of solar panels in the Mojave Desert. If you zoom out, you'll find quite a bit more nearby. Whether or not you count this as large, the impact is not negligible. https://www.google.com/maps/place/34%C2%B048'44.1%22N+118%C2%B025'47.3%22W/@34.779389,-118.4394264,4845m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d34.812264!4d-118.429794 https://www.google.com/maps/place/34%C2%B048'44.1%22N+118%C2... EDIT: To be clear, I am not fundamentally opposed to such installations just as I am not fundamentally opposed to new hydroelectric projects, but we need to be aware of the impacts, and we need to make conscious decisions about when the costs are worth paying and when they are not.

vacri 10y ago
Traditional power stations aren't exactly small, either. In fact, people will think you're a lunatic if you start talking about nuclear or coal in "per square meter of land" terms.
- wtallis 10y ago
  For context: my local nuclear power station is about 600 W/m^2, unless you count the purpose-built lake it relies on for cooling water, in which case it's 50 W/m^2. The 17 W/m^2 estimate above for solar doesn't look as bad as I would've guessed.
- Gibbon1 10y ago
  Think I point out is there is a perception issue. When people thing 'power plant' they think of a large concrete building with a bunch of machines in it. But they don't think of all of the supporting infrastructure. (Comment I've heard about nuclear power in France is on hot days it's partly limited by the need to avoid dumping too much waste heat into the rivers. Coal fired plants seem neat and tidy until one thinks of the strip mines. Gas fired, the massive network of pipes needed to extract the gas and move it to where it'll be burned.