Density in this case referring to "kW per acre of solar panels", and the #s come out to something like covering all of Australia with solar panels, if I remember correctly.
> and the #s come out to something like covering all of Australia with solar panels, if I remember correctly
You do not remember correctly. Estimates seem to vary, but Musk reckons 100 miles by 100 miles for America[0] which I make as 0.003% of Australia. It's a large (if imaginary) place.
> In other words, the land area dedicated to renewable energy (”Renewistan”) would occupy a space about the size of Australia to keep the carbon dioxide level at 450 ppm. To get to Hanson’s goal of 350 ppm of carbon dioxide, fossil fuel burning would have to be cut to ZERO, which means another 3 terawatts would have to come from renewables, expanding the size of Renewistan further by 26 percent.
That confuses primary energy with zero-entropy energy (work). One does not replace a gigajoule of coal with a gigajoule of electrical energy. It also is talking about biomass, which is very land inefficient.
So, basically, the source you are pointing to is obviously flawed and should be ignored.
