There is not enough land available to power the world entirely from renewables.
Fact:
This is nonsense. A number of studies have been done to determine how much land would be required to power the United States using only renewable energy. One done at MIT estimated that all of America’s energy needs in 2050 could be satisfied with solar technology using 33,000 square kilometres of land. This represents 0.5 percent of the land mass of the United States. If those solar panels were restricted to the sunniest parts of the country, only 12,000 square kilometres would be required.
This might seem like a great deal of land, but it actually isn’t all that much when you consider that golf courses take currently take up about 10,000 square kilometres in the US and major roadways take up another 49,000 square kilometres. In addition, the nation has 20,000 square kilometres of rooftop space, so there is no shortage of places where solar panels could be located.
In New South Wales, the Clean Energy Council has estimated that just 0.06 per cent of rural land would be required in order to provide all the solar power the state will need by 2050. Much of that land, of course, is not suitable for agriculture, so the loss of production would be minimal. It’s also been estimated that Sydney could generate enough electricity to satisfy three quarters percent of its needs by putting solar panels on unused industrial roof space.
In reality, of course, much of our renewable energy will be produced by wind turbines, which can be placed on agricultural land without decreasing its productivity. Solar panels can also be used this way, but not in all circumstances and not without some reduction in productivity. Wind turbines can also be placed offshore, while solar panels can be placed over canals or floated on lakes. They can also be placed on land that is unsuitable for other purposes, like deserts, abandoned mines and former waste dumps.
Hence, there is plenty of land available for the renewable energy revolution.