David MacKay’s book Sustainable Energy - Without The Hot Air proves that decarbonising Britain's economy with renewables physically does not add up, even if ignoring costs:

Supplying Britain’s energy needs with onshore wind power would require covering literally the entire country in turbines, even assuming that wind blows everywhere.

Offshore wind farms would need to get bigger than Wales.

Using every piece of agricultural land for biofuel production would provide just 12% of the fuel needs.

It could be argued that these physical limits do not apply to less densely populated countries. True to some extent.

The fact remains that renewable-energy facilities would need immense areas if fossil fuels are to be phased out without using nuclear energy, which leads to the perverse dilemma of further damaging the environment with either carbon emissions or radioactive spills.

Is there enough land to produce food crops, raise livestock, host cities, generate renewable energy, and even "offset" our carbon emissions?

And what about preserving forests, natural ecosystems and even carbon stored in "unused" land?

Mhai Selph, May 2009

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