When considering wind power, cost and impact are major considerations – wind power is relatively competitive based on cost. But how many wind power stations can you build? Finding sites and establishing transmission corridors is most of the battle with wind power, so the bigger the unit, the better. Still the scale of these machines is daunting – many of these wind power stations have total heights exceeding 500 or even 600 feet. By contrast, the Statue of Liberty only measures 305 feet from the water to the tip of her torch. How many of these units would replace a 1.0 gigawatt nuclear power plant?
At 5.0 megawatts each, and a 25% yield, you would need 800 of these machines. At 2.5 megawatts each, you would need 1,600 of them – that is a very, very large wind farm, on-shore or offshore. If they are placed on a grid a safe distance apart, say 500 meters (remember, they are up to 200 meters tall), then 1,600 of these units would consume an area of 200 square kilometers. At 5.0 megawatts per unit, but 1,000 meters between units, a 800 unit windfarm (25% yield) with generating capacity equivalent to a 1.0 gigawatt nuclear power plant would require 800 square kilometers, over 300 square miles. Each of these units would be nearly twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.