Europe's Green Energy Rush Slashed Emissions – and Crippled the Economy
wsj.com
wsj.com
> Some prominent economists and industry executives have recently cast doubt on whether renewables will ever be cheaper in places like Germany and the U.K. that aren’t blessed with abundant sunshine and have bet big on wind. Onshore wind turbines in Germany produce around one-fifth of their total theoretical output. Solar panels in Germany and the U.K. use only around 10% of their total theoretical output.
Last year, German onshore wind generated 111.9 TWh, or roughly 320 MWh/km2. I can't find the numbers of onshore wind in the US, but the total energy generated by wind power was 453.5 TWh last year. Divide that by land area, and you get ~50 MWh/km2. Because the US has developed only a small fraction of its wind power potential, new turbines can still be built in favorable locations, and capacity factors are high. Germany has to build new turbines in marginal locations, with lower capacity factors.
Up until you start building cities and building with more than one floor. Then you have more people and power usage per roof area. Then you have to put solar panels on some unused area around city to offset that high population density.