I posted this within the context of the discussion on the other thread, but it also seems appropriate within the context of the immediate discussion here:
When it comes to wind, Hayden shows wind farms can generate electrical power at the rate of about 1.2 watts (W) per square meter (m2) for most sites, and up to 4 W/m2 in rare sites where the wind always comes from one direction. The goal is to generate enough energy to replicate a 1,000 megawatts power plant operating around the clock. To do that in California, for example, would require a wind farm one mile wide stretching all the way from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
To produce as much energy as a conventional 1,000 megawatt power plant using solar would require a 127 square mile field of solar mirrors collecting enough heat to turn a turbine. Now that would have quite an environmental impact!
For decades, there have been delirious proclamations that the world would soon run on solar energy. Those statements have always sounded too good to be true and, sure enough, they have always been false.
Solar Fraud will arm you with the basic knowledge to understand all the physics of energy utilization. Energy use creates the power to run society, as well as the statistics that track man's lack of progress when attempting to overturn the laws of nature through the use of impractical energy sources.
Additionally, Hayden's collection of quotes from the purveyors of the solar fraud, when set side-by-side with the physical facts, will convince you that society is not being victimized by well-meaning, wrongheaded people. Instead, the purveyors of the solar energy fraud are intent on bringing industrial society to its knees by stifling society's true, nearly inexhaustible sources of energy.
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=10648
So this explains why we aren't running any villages, much less any large cities, let alone any countries, on wind or solar power these days, and we should probably raise our eyebrows should any Pols suggest that should be our goal. Continue research and development of course. But there are no magic bullets that are going to solve our energy crisis and I will look most favorably on those who suggest we will need to learn to live peacefully with oil, natural gas, and coal for some time to come as well as reinstate nuclear programs.
