The German nation recently decided to forego nuclear energy as a power source. Consequently, they will need to replace 10.5% of their primary energy consumption (i.e. 134.9 TWH per year). One possibility is to use solar power.

Consider the Waldolenz solar park in Germany. It has 200 hectares of photovoltaic cells. The site can produce 40MW peak power but has a capacity factor of 0.11. Thus, overall it can produce 0.0385 TWH/a. With this as a metric then the replacement of Germany’s nuclear power will require 700 000 additional hectares of cells at locations with the same or better capacity factor than Waldolenz.

The German nation extends across 35 698 000ha. Thus, the extent of land exists. But, it already hosts people and their enterprises or has a special designation. For instance, 129 000ha are nature reserves and wilderness areas while altogether nearly a third or 11 661 000ha are protected. So, do people get moved, nature get moved or is there another alternative?