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In some respects wind is like hydro, in that there are a limited number of good places to site a wind farm. As the number of turbines grows there will be dimin
by tsotha 15y ago
In some respects wind is like hydro, in that there are a limited number of good places to site a wind farm. As the number of turbines grows there will be diminishing returns as the new sites are less good because they have less wind, longer distances to existing power infrastructure, more damaging weather incidents, etc.
- danielharan 15y agoWe're nowhere near that limit. From Wikipedia: According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the contiguous United States has the potential for 10,459 GW of onshore wind power. The capacity could generate 37 petawatt-hours (PW·h) annually, an amount nine times larger than current total U.S. electricity consumption. The U.S. also has large wind resources in Alaska, and Hawaii. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_States
- ams6110 15y agoSince we're engaging in fantasy (for now) what would happen if we DID extract that much energy (or even a significant fraction of that) from the atmosphere? What kind of climate change would that precipitate?
- danielharan 15y agoNone. The amount of energy extractable by wind turbines is only a tiny fraction of the total, close to the surface.