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Wind Could Provide 100% of World Energy Needs
Damien1972 sends in a report on a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, which finds that wind power could provide for the entire world's current and future energy needs. "To estimate the earth's capacity for wind power, the researchers first sectioned the globe into areas of approximately 3,300 square kilometers (2,050 square miles) and surveyed local wind speeds every six hours. They imagined 2.5 megawatt turbines crisscrossing the terrestrial globe, excluding 'areas classified as forested, areas occupied by permanent snow or ice, areas covered by water, and areas identified as either developed or urban,' according to the paper. They also included the possibility of 3.6 megawatt offshore wind turbines, but restricted them to 50 nautical miles off the coast and to oceans depths less than 200 meters. Using [these] criteria the researchers found that wind energy could not only supply all of the world's energy requirements, but it could provide over forty times the world's current electrical consumption and over five times the global use of total energy needs."
... to have a noticeable impact on the Coriolis force?
And Holland's tourism industry would crash, I mean without the windmills, why would you want to go to the Netherlands... I mean isn't that what draws all those young folks to Amsterdam these days?
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Let's fill the world with gigantic metal spinning blades suspended hundreds of feet in the air. What could possibly go wrong?
Scientists confirmed today that Global Slowing is real. After years of speculation, it's now been confirmed that our harnessing of wind power for our energy needs is slowing the Earth down, and within a matter of decades, the Earth will come to a complete stop. Scientists are currently unsure whether this Global Slowing can be reversed, but some have proposed using fossil fuels to create artificial wind to help the Earth keep moving.
It'd seem having massive wind turbines would slow down the movement of air, which might lead to scenarios where the current global warming scare would be merely a trifle.
Not if you fit the turbines within the Senate's chambers...
The long term plan is to let evolution take its course. Eventually we'll be left with Ninja birds that have learned how to avoid wind turbine blades. These will then be put through further training to teach how to stop crapping on my car right after I've washed it.
I'm worrying about what they've got against birds. This will wreak absolute havoc on African Swallows migrating with their coconuts.
Not if you fit the turbines within the Senate's chambers...
damn that's a lot of hot air right there.
Deja Moo: The feeling you've heard this bullsh*t before.
But, once they use up all the wind, how will I fly my kite?
if we have nearly unlimited electricity what will we do with the heat?
Crank up the air-con. Uses up some of the spare electricity AND cools things down. Problem solved.
That's easy, we'll put the energy back where it came from. However, we're going to need a LOT of fans for it to work.
You have a really valuable argument that people should spend a lot of time worrying about. It's a real shame that most people won't see it, since it's posted anonymously. Wind is essentially created by heat from the sun. Using all these wind turbines will obviously make the sun go out.
That would be a real problem.
I've heard of the dihydrogen monoxide, there's a cemetery in my town where every single corpse buried there was a dihydrogen monoxide drinker. obviously, that compound has a 100% lethality rate.
Paint them black and cover them with photovoltaic cells.
I see a red windmill and I want it painted black
No birds fly anymore I want them to turn black
I see the vanes turn round dressed in voltaic cells
I have to turn on lights until the darkness goes
Wind doesn't grow on trees, you know.
Actually, we have this snazzy new method ... it's called nuclear power! Well some people prefer to call it atomic power, or nukeular power, but they're just silly. Anyway, I'm not sure about all the ins and outs of it, but supposedly some science geek with a really messed-up haircut managed to figure out how to turn matter into energy! Weird, I know, but they even say they might be able to make bombs out of it. Imagine that: a power generating method which not only doesn't remove energy from the environment, but adds energy into it! It's mind-boggling ...
There is no excuse. It is inherently stupid, to use wind power. No matter how you turn and twist it.
says Hurricane78
His question demands an answer.
No, you deserve to be shouted down, you heretic! How dare you bring things like logic and physics into a debate that should be ruled by emotion and general lack of understanding of how the earth's climate works! Don't you realize that thousands -- maybe hundreds of thousands -- of scientists, authors, and pundits could die or be seriously financially inconvenienced should the public ever glom onto the fact that there is no consensus amongst scientists on what's going on with our climate? And unicorns! Won't somebody think of the uuuunnniicoooorrrnnns??? You heartless bastard! You want unicorns to die, don't you?
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Doesn't matter. You can erect five turbines and use the energy output from them to make a hundred more. With those hundred turbines you can make ten thousand. It's called a windfarm because that's where you breed new turbines.
No sig today...
Dihydrogen monoxide is also a major component of acid rain, can kill you if you breathe it, and oxidises/corrodes many metals. It is found in biopsies of pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions.
For a full rundown of the dangers (and - surprisingly - some benefits) of dihydrogen monoxide click here.
Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
Terminal* as in the end of the line (in this case, death).
*From the latin Terminae, meaning "cyborg sent from the future to destroy the leader of the resistance before he is ever born"
which is totally what she said
No, she was clearly asking for it. I mean, she had part of her oil and coal deposits glistening out of her top. Were we supposed to just ignore that kind of signal?
Wind turbines are nice and all, but on a local scale you cannot depend on the wind, just like you cannot depend on solar, at least until you have some sort of national wind infrastructure ($$$).