Footprints - Solar, Wind and Nuclear

A visual comparison of the relative amounts of land needed to generate the same amounts of electricity based on current nuclear, solar and wind technologies. The last image is superimposed over a map of Rhode Island.

Concerning solar power:

Try to imagine the entire solar (yellow) footprint covered with solar panels. Next, try to imagine washing these things every three to four days.

Concerning wind power:

No wonder T. Boone Pickens jockeyed Congress for help with eminent domain issues while executing his plan for using 1,200 sq miles for 4,000 MW of wind power production. Hopefully, this will be an eye opener to the amount of forests, plains, and desert needed to enable wind and solar energies to compete with nuclear energy in power production. Until the technology is developed to store the energy produced by wind and solar energies, this is the footprint of land that we will be dealing with.

What makes various "clean energy" technologies "earth friendly"? No easy answers. As for sustainability:

Today's USA Today has a piece on students who are studying for "sustainability" careers, such as being a wind turbine technician.

I doubt that anyone tells the students that much of the "sustainability" industry, such as wind farms, is sustainable only with constant government subsidies.