How many wind turbines does it take to power england?

Question

How many wind turbines does it take to power england?

Answer 1

One, the size of Germany!

Answer 2

UK uses 350000 (GWh/year)

there are 24*365 hrs/year, so this is a steady rate of 41 GW

A large wind turbine has a capacity of about 3MW, but only 30% typical utilization, so average capacity is 1MW

So that translates to 40,000 turbines. At a cost of 1M pounds per MW, that is 3M£ per turbine or £120 000 000 000.

Which translates to £2,000 per person.

And there would be a major problem: The UK is small enough that the wind could be still in most of the area for long periods, and any conceivable power storage system would run out.

Similar problems apply to solar power. Which leaves only nuclear.