In 2012, the total American population of 314,112,078 people used 4,069,054,975,224 kWh of electricity a year. 1 If this usage pattern were to stay the same 10 billion Americans would use 129,541,532,600,000 kWh a year. The amount of land required to produce this amount of electricity is shown for different types of power generation; nuclear, 2 solar, 3 and wind 4 power at the scale such installations typically require.
1 The World Bank, "World DataBank," (2012),http://databank.worldbank.org/data//reports.aspx?source=2&country=USA&series=&period=# (accessed August 8, 2015).
2 U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Frequently Asked Questions," http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=104&t=3 (accessed June 1st, 2015).
3 FirstSolar, "Topaz Solar Farm: Project Overview," http://www.firstsolar.com/en/about-us/projects/topaz-solar-farm/ (accessed June 1, 2015). - Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press, "Topaz Solar Farm," http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/topaz_solar_farm(accessed June 1, 2015).
4 European Wind Energy Association, "Wind energy's frequently asked questions (FAQ)," http://www.ewea.org/wind-energy-basics/faq/ (accessed June 1st 2015). - Wind farm: On an 8Dx4D grid with 100m diameter rotors; EDF Energy Renewables, "FAQ," http://www.edf-er.com/AboutWindEnergy/FAQ.aspx (accessed June 30, 2015). - National Wind Watch, "FAQ-Output," https://www.wind-watch.org/faq-output.php (accessed June 30, 2015).