How much land does it take to power the world?

Explore the sustainability of fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewable energy and how much space each of these power sources use.

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No matter how we make electricity, it takes up space. Coal requires mines, and plants to convert it into electricity. Nuclear power takes uranium mines, facilities to refine it, a reactor, and a place to store the spent fuel safely. Renewable energy needs wind turbines or solar panels. So how much space would it take to power the whole world? Explore the sustainability of different power sources.

Directed by Lisa LaBracio.
Animation and art direction by Kevin Herrmann, AIM Creative Studios.

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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Marc Bilodeau, Karen Goepen-Wee, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Chris, Tim Leistikow, Renhe Ji, Ka-Hei Law, Leora Allen, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun , Boytsov Ilya, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Noa Shore, Kyle Nguyen, Michael Aquilina, MJ Tan Mingjie, Dawn Jordan, Prasanth Mathialagan, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Siamak H, Manav parmar, David Lucsanyi, Anthony Kudolo, Ryohky Araya, Eduardo Briceño, Christophe Dessalles, Heather Slater, Yuh Saito, Fabian Amels, Sandra Tersluisen, Zhexi Shan, Bárbara Nazaré, Josh Engel, Andrea Feliz, Victor E Karhel, Sydney Evans, Latora Slydell, Noel Situ, emily lam, Sid, Jordan Tang, Kent Logan, Alexandra Panzer and Declan Manning.

[deepsyk]

It bears the question: Do we really NEED Delaware?

[Olothreutes]

I disagree that nuclear needs to be made safer, statistically it's extremely safe. It's only the public perception of the issue that leads to statements like "nuclear needs to be made safer."

[unusedaccount]

Why do i recognize this voice...
Edit : oh its the voice of the demon of reason

[lfquuny]

We just need to find enough screaming children.

[youcef]

In Algeria we have 2 millions Km² of deserts and most of it is neither used nor populated, if only we had reasonable and honorable politicians and ministers :'(

[dynamosaurusimperious]

TED-Ed always know how to make everyday, a goodday

[cjishere]

Nuclear energy needs to be appreciated more

[patricksarama]

I think it’s important to note that nuclear energy only takes up the amount of space it does for the amount of energy it produces because we only use uranium as nuclear fuel, which is highly inefficient compared to what other nuclear fuel options, like thorium has to offer - which uses only about 1/5 the land that our current uranium-235 reactors use

And in case you were wondering, the ONLY reason for why we don’t already use thorium to produce energy instead of uranium is because the radioactive byproduct that is made from the fission of thorium cannot be used to make nuclear bombs due to it being a more stable element

[squishydd]

Last time I was this early, the dinos weren't even fossilised

[dr.saimamasood]

Fact: Fossil fuels kill the most people and Nuclear Energy the least.
Edit: Even in per watt of electricity

[juliancoenen]

Have you also calculated the space needed to gather the materials for solar and wind power?
P.S. Nuclear doesn't have a safety problem, they have a management issue, the safety of the powerplant comes mostly from how well the powerplant has been maintained, which requires oversight in case of companies, and caution in case of governments.

[legichron]

I love how ted-ed always take the neutral side and showing only facts rather than their preferences

[suflaj]

Nuclear Fusion be like: You dare to oppose me mortal?

[HumansOfVR]

these animations are always so amazing

[currymobile]

Electrical engineer here. It does not seem that you are taking dispatchability into your cost and land-use calculations. If the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow at the right times (which happens very frequently), you must have backup generation or storage to maintain grid stability. Backup generation is, much of the time, a fossil fuel and storage is extremely expensive and/or very land intensive. In my opinion this puts nuclear clearly ahead of the rest.

[Ninjaeule]

Why didn't you factor in mining and recycling/disposal of renewable energy? Is the impact so small that it doesn't change the equation or did you just forget?

[QuestionEverythingButWHY]

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
― Isaac Asimov

[renamedanglerfishwholivesi]

Hydroelectricity is great. Increased research into fusion would also be a good idea.

[salokin]

The nuclear argument, while logical, is limited because the general population and local govt freak out over it, making it almost impossible to roll it out on a national or even state level

[eethannnn]

With enough nuclear power plants and actually competent people, we can become at least 50x more efficient than solar, wind, and natural fuel.