For 40% Of The EU And US To Drive EVs, 56,000-70,000 Km² Of Land Must Be Cleared For Wind Turbines

A new study warns that “a massive expansion of impervious surfaces” is an inevitable consequence of having electric vehicles reach a 40% share of citizens’ driving needs.  A land area the size of Croatia (in the European Union) or West Virginia (in the United States) must be completely covered with wind turbines to meet EV-charging energy demands for 4 of every 10 vehicles.

The already-weak power capacity of wind turbines, 0.5 We m² on average, will only continue to diminish as more wind farms are added to the landscape (Miller and Keith, 2018).

Consequently, the land area that must be devoted to the erection of wind turbines to meet the ever-growing energy needs of Earth’s citizens is harrowing.

Consider the US. Electricity generation only accounts for 17% of the US’s primary energy consumption. For wind energy to supply all the electricity needs for US citizens, a land area the size of California – 12 percent of the contiguous US – must be cleared to make way for wind farms (Miller and Keith, 2018). Again, that’s to meet just 1/6th of Americans’ energy needs.

Image Source: Miller and Keith, 2018

In Scotland, 14 million CO2-absorbing trees were recently chopped down to make way for wind farms. This way the Scottish government can ironically claim they’re doing their part to reduce CO2 emissions.

And now a new study documents how much more land must be converted to impervious surface so that new wind farms can supply the electricity to charge an exponentially-growing number of EVs in the coming decades.

“In order to run 40% of their vehicles with electricity, the EU should devote over 5000 km² of land (twice the size of Luxembourg) to photovoltaic panels or almost 56,000 km² (about the size of Croatia) to wind turbines, whereas the US should devote over 6000 km² (roughly the size of Delaware) to solar or almost 70,000 km² (more than the area of West Virginia) to wind.”

Image Source: Orsi, 2021

Put another way, an average EU or US city will need to expand its urbanized area by 0.2 to 4 km² due to dramatically rising number of EVs using low-density wind and solar energy to supply electricity.

And this is green?

19 responses to “For 4019 Of The EU And US To Drive EVs, 56,000-70,000 Km² Of Land Must Be Cleared For Wind Turbines”

  1. Chris Hanley

    Together with the necessary area to provide the weather-dependent low-density energy supply there is the incredible amount of material and energy required for mining, moving and processing for the construction, energy storage, safe disposal and that is an ongoing procedure due to the relatively short useful life of the hardware.
    It’s hard to believe these supposedly ‘low-carbon’ energy sources have got so far and the ‘powers that be’ seem intent on forging ahead; reality will strike eventually, the longer this insane RE drive continues the uglier it will get.

  2. John F Hultquist

    Not green. Evil.

    1. oebele bruinsma

      Not green, not even evil, but uncompromising HATE, with the effect of clusterbombs. (Which are illegal of course)

  3. RoHa

    Maybe we could put the turbines on Mars, and send the electricity back to Earth.

  4. Robert Christopher

    Conservative Home, an unofficial website for the UK Conservative Party (which is in government) has had regular articles by supporters of NET Zero Carbon (Dioxide) Emissions, much to the frustration of those who post there: it would be amusing if it wasn’t so serious!

    However, today, in addition to an earlier vacuous NET Zero article we have an article by an MP who understands the situation:
    https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2021/07/craig-mackinlay-the-government-is-fooling-itself-if-it-thinks-it-can-go-down-the-net-zero-path-without-electoral-damage.html

    Some of the posters, below the article can’t believe it! 🙂

    1. bonbon

      See, Brexit be-damned, this nutty NET 0 roller-coaster rolls on – where’s the driver?

  5. Robert Christopher

    Another problem with this infatuation with Carbon Dioxide and windmills is that there are other dangers lurking that are completely ignored.

    One is that we could experience a solar storm, where material and Electromagnetic disturbance and material travels outward across the heliosphere, affecting the entire Solar System, including Earth and its magnetosphere. The Carrington Event occurred in 1859, when the damage was only limited because power lines were so rare,

    In fact, one occurred very recently, but it was on the other side of the Sun, so it was directed away from the Earth: see the first 1.5 minutes of the video: Lucky us! 🙂
    https://youtu.be/LWibtF2FHvA

  6. bonbon

    Hungary just now rejected ¨Fit for 55¨, the EU green boondoggle :
    https://hungarytoday.hu/pmo-head-government-eu-ec-climate-change-plan-fit-for-55-unacceptable/
    and Magyar :
    https://hvg.hu/zhvg/20210715_gulyas_gergely_unios_klimaterv_szavazas?fbclid=IwAR0bnDf3ddX3TI4zwD_JKboD8Sb0de0OOQa8wxGyc_0PFcFb3w5Rwk4M2GQ
    Since unanimity is required it seems Brussels has a problem, or rather two, since the LGBTQ ultimatum floundered.

  7. Jim

    And, again. The windmill, is not anti pollution. In the us, windmills do not face politicians, and cannot save us from their ****. Windmills and solar farms do not work 24×7. The sun does not shine at night, or work effectivly under clouds. The weather extreams usually bring in extreams clouds, and low wind conditions. Just what is needed for extremely high power usage days. No or low power.
    Actually, I love the estimates of amounts of land needed. Say, for California, you need twice the amount of land, just for California. Not including the hydro and gas backup generators. Or, cover all the lakes and streams with panels, or eliminate the forests and grasslands, talk about short sighted, humanity killers.

  8. pochas94

    And the rusting hulks of retired wind turbines will be studied by archeologists for millennia to come.

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  16. Yonason

    No study is needed to understand why these failed.
    https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/report-philadelphias-proterra-fleet-in-complete-shambles/
    It’s obvious they were junk.

    What needs to be studied and documented is how purchase of said junk was thought to be a good idea in the first place.

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