(V): You need about 400 square miles of wind turbines to equal 1 nuclear power plant.

Pedro Martínez: maybe it was a one room school house

Pedro Martínez: I just googled to check that.. ... I found that claim is linked to a 1977 New scientist article by an MP on anti nuclear nonsense.

... Tech has changed in 33 years.

(V):

Output of a typical nuclear power plant: 1,000 MW per hour.
Output of an average wind turbine: 600 kW per hour.

A typical wind farm of 70 turbines and 1,500 acres produces 25 MW per hour. So you would need 60,000 acres of wind turbines to equal 1,000 MW. At the capacity factor of 25%, you will need four times as large area, i.e. 240,000 acres = 375 square miles.

Pedro Martínez: I was talking about microgeneration not windmill farms. But as for your figures.. I read 60 acres produces 1 MW...

But at the same time, 95% of the land involved is still free for other uses such as farming. They take less time (especially re microgeneration) to install as well as a great deal less money to build.

Can you confirm the date of your figures?

(V): My post was a response to your statement that “It makes you wonder how much our reliance on big power plants could be reduced if they [electricity generating windmills] became a standard.”

As for my figures… my source is Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power
(“A typical 1000-MWe nuclear reactor produces…”)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine
(referring to this table indicating the outputs of different wind turbines)
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power
(see the part on capacity factor)

As regards the article on the Buena Vista wind farm… yes, there are larger and more efficient wind turbines, as well as there are larger and more efficient nuclear power plants. I was comparing the average figures.

Pedro Martínez: I'm not disputing Nuclear power works. Out of nuclear or fossil fuel, I'd rather nuclear be used. It's not perfect (waste) but I've been in one and seeing the safety and tech used to counter the problems as well as knowledge on how to deal with radiation... It's a good energy source.

Microgeneration is a good system which through wind and solar tech can take our reliance of big power plants. If we can at home produce 40-60% of our energy needs then we reduce the need for expensive and possibly contaminating waste.

We have at the moment wind, solar and wave power as standards in renewable energy. Some countries can access steam.. thinking about I'm surprised Yellowstone has not been tapped. The tech is improving.