Ira Flatow's Science Friday today featured an interview with the authors of a new study on wind energy.
Assuming the use of off-the-shelf hardware (General Electric 2.5 megawatt turbines) and wind data from around the world, the study's authors, Xi Lua, Michael B. McElroya, and Juha Kiviluoma, explored the potential of wind energy to supply world needs. They found that the world has more than enough wind energy to completely eliminate use of nuclear power and other fossil fuels. This was especially true of the United States. In the US, most states had the potential to become surplus energy producers.
Costs per generated megawatt easily beat those projected for so-called "clean coal." When competing with "dirty coal, costs for wind were somewhat higher. Unlike coal, wind does no contribute to global warming. In fact, they say, a fully maxed out wind generating grid would actually cool the world's polar regions.
The study, Global potential for wind-generated electricity may be downloaded at no cost.
