How we will actually lose California?.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Wigmund

Unless they are a threat to local endangered wildlife, then there's a slight problem with developing wind power.

While some areas may get to enjoy large-scale wind farms, Northwest Arkansas will not be one of those areas. And looking at the solar power potential for the US, we're not a great area to rely extensively on solar paneling either. We need cleaner power production here other than the coal and gas-fired plants we're currently relying on. And unfortunately, Nuclear (fusion and fission) looks like the best choice for growing areas like us.

Your argument would hold more weight if they actually had results on the bats. People love to pull the wildlife card, but the fact of the matter is that the turbines don't actually kill that much.

As for the solar, it looks to me like part of their ratings system is how much empty space there is, which is why Texas isn't lit up more. But to be frank, 4-5 kWh/m^2/day isn't exactly terrible. Not when half of Arizona, the absolute poster-state for solar power, only gets 6-7 and half of California only gets 5-6.

The point being that just because it's in a green area doesn't mean it's not viable. I direct you back to the example of Germany, which is by no means Arizona, who are using the technology just fine.