This is Grohnde #nuclear power plant. In February 2021 it produced 400 TWh low-carbon electricity since it started in 1984, with no accidents or leaks.
The plant occupies 0.4 km2 and is surrounded by farm fields.
Just for comparison, to replace its nameplate capacity of 1430 MW you would need 286 wind turbines 5 MW each, occupying 476 km2 in total. That's around the area shown on this screenshot, all filled with wind turbines.
But then, that's *nameplate* only, so 100%. In reality, on-shore wind has ~20% capacity factor, so the area needs to be increased 5x to *actually* get the same amount of energy (kWh).
2383 km2 of wind turbines to replace a single 1430 MW nuclear power plant.
@kravietz To what extent is surface area a limiting factor, vs the initial costs, operating and maintenance, etc.
Even that big number is only 0.002% of the land.
Mother nature brings fuel to the wind turbines for free, can't say the same about the uranium mining, enrichment, transportation, and other support infrastructure needed everytime the power plant gets refueled.
> only 0.002% of the land
It's not, because you don't need wind power generated in vast steppes in Mongolia because there's no demand for it.
You want it generated close to where large demand. In that specific case of Germany, you'd need to remove a few dozens of towns and villages and thousands of hectares of forests for the wind towers and infrastructure.
