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."

Comments

The world has a surplus of solar and wind power

[WillAffleckUW]

Our reserves of this are so massive that we could easily provide the total global energy needs just from solar or wind in the USA alone.

Including the loss from storing said energy for transmission and usage.

That said, all energy sources have pros and cons. Some are extreme (nuclear,coal) but even the most benign source has impacts.

The same goes for tidal and geothermal.

But only oil, coal, and nuclear fission will likely lead to the extinction of our species due to the greed of the people involved.

Re:Think of the birds!

[WeblionX]

Not really. African swallows are nonmigratory.

Re:Not many choices...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're forgetting nuclear. Atomic energy does not come from the sun, and weight-to-weight has 1,000,000 times more heat-power than coal.