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We built about a million aircraft globally during WWII (specifically: 1939-1945). I’m not saying the average WWII airplane compares perfectly to a modern wind t
by matthewdgreen 3y ago
We built about a million aircraft globally during WWII (specifically: 1939-1945). I’m not saying the average WWII airplane compares perfectly to a modern wind turbine, but the technology and industrial base we used to do this was also vastly more primitive. So yes, I’d bet that a sufficiently-motivated human society can crank out a million turbines over a multi-decade time span. You can Google the IEA “Net Zero by 2050” report to find estimates of how much offshore wind capacity there is (it’s a lot.)
It does illustrate the specific challenge of this energy transition. If a given energy technology isn’t being mass-produced in factories, it’s basically irrelevant given the scale of what we need to do.