In his new article, "Renewable and nuclear heresies," Professor Jesse Ausubel compared renewable and nuclear power production.  His comparison used the metric of watts per square meter: the average amount of power production per square meter necessary to utilize to produce that power.

His point was more likely that nuclear power compares favorably with other renewable sources when viewed on this scale. But an interesting fact emerged: hydropower is by far the most damaging of the power sources investigated.

Hydropower produces only 0.1 watts per square meter, while wind produces 2 watts per square meter - or 20 times the reduced geographic footprint for the same power. For a report meant to debunk the promise of wind, the touted green promise of hydropower looks indefensibly diminished.

The Ausubel study is available through the publishing journal >>

The London Guardian's July 25th article reports >>

The analysis showed that damming rivers to make use of hydroelectric power was among the most harmful to the landscape, producing around 0.1 watts of power per square metre. The world's largest dam, the Three Gorges power station on the Yangtze in China, stores nearly 40bn cubic metres of water, submerging land that was previously home to more than 1 million people.