Natural gas power plants require the least amount of materials of all energy sources. Wind power requires 18 times more materials than a natural gas plant. Wind turbines require a lot of minerals, petrochemicals, and fossil fuels. Building a single 2 MW wind turbine uses 187 tons of coal—the equivalent of 125 pickup trucks full of coal. Building a 100 MW wind plant requires 30,000 tons of iron ore, 50,000 tons of concrete and 900 tons of nonrecyclable plastics for the blades—all mined, transported, and produced with fossil fuels.

Construction of a solar plant requires 14 times more material than building a nuclear power plant. The most important raw material in solar panel manufacturing is silicon. Solar cells are made from silicon, and it takes on average about four to five metric tons (4,000-5,000 kg) of silicon to produce 1 MW of solar panels.

Silicon is made by extracting, transporting, and burning millions of tons of quartz, coal, oil coke, charcoal, and wood chips to smelt pure metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si). Producing one ton of MG-Si requires these raw materials: 

• 2.4 tons of quartz;

• 550 kg of coal;

• 200 kg of oil coke; 

• 600 kg of charcoal; and 

• 300 kg of wood chips.

The only “renewable” materials consumed in producing solar panels are obtained by burning large areas of forest for charcoal to provide the wood chips necessary for silicon smelters to function. 

Land use: Nuclear wins | Runner up: Gas

Comparing land requirements can be tricky because project designs can vary widely depending on technology and location. Probably the most accurate way of comparing the land used for different energy technologies is in terms of MWh installed. This method takes into account the capacity factor of each technology. Capacity factor is the ratio of the actual output of a power plant to the maximum possible output under ideal conditions, and it reflects the average utilization of the plant over a period of time. A higher capacity factor means the plant is more efficient and produces more electricity per unit of installed capacity.

The table below compares land requirements of various energy technologies per MWh installed, taking into account their typical capacity factors. It ranks six energy sources based on land required. The top-ranking energy source receives a score of 1, and the other energy sources receive scores between 2 and 6. The lower the score, the better the ranking.

Nuclear power and natural gas require less land than the other energy sources we’re comparing. And small nuclear plants require less land than large nuclear plants.

Nuclear produces more power per square meter and has the highest capacity factor of any energy source. As a result, it requires less land to produce the same amount of power than any other energy source. Large nuclear plants require 63 times less land than solar. And small nuclear plants can require 800 times less land than wind depending on the project.

Natural gas plants require up to 19 times less land than solar plants. A 200 MW wind plant can take up 13 square miles. A natural gas power plant with that same generating capacity could fit onto a single city block. 

Small nuclear plants require less land than large nuclear plants, and they can be sited almost anywhere. The smallest reactors can operate on 2 acres of land compared with 800 acres for a large 1,000 MW reactor. Most large nuclear plants need to be located near a reservoir, river, or the ocean to access water for cooling. Most small nuclear plants don’t need to be sited near a body of water because they use other cooling methods (such as liquid metal or helium gas) to remove heat from the reactor. The only water they need is a small amount of makeup water to operate the steam turbine. A small reactor can use as little as 15 gallons/MWh compared with 820 gallons/MWh for a large reactor.

Nuclear and natural gas plants can be built near urban centers where homes and businesses are located. By contrast, wind and solar plants are usually located far from homes and businesses and require more land for power lines to move the electricity where it’s needed.