Word: windedly
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...study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) says yes. A team led by Michael McElroy at Harvard University assessed the global capacity for wind power - the total amount of sheer energy that's being carried on the breeze - and found that current technology could harness enough power to supply more than 40 times the planet's present-day levels of electricity consumption. For the U.S., there's enough wind concentrated in the Midwest prairie states to supply as much as 16 times the current American demand for electricity. The energy is there, on the breeze...
...Wind-power estimates have been made before, but the PNAS team drilled them down to greater detail. Using a simulation of global wind fields from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Data Assimilation System - a network of complex computer systems used to simulate and predict meteorology - McElroy and his colleagues could map the distribution of wind resources around the globe, then calculate how much electricity could be produced by tapping those breezes with current turbines, which can generate about 2.5 megawatts on land, and larger turbines that can generate 3.6 megawatts offshore. (Offshore winds tend to be stronger and more...
...results show that there's more than enough wind to go around, and not just in breezy, big countries like the U.S. Even land-limited Japan can produce more than three times its current electricity consumption with wind power, provided it taps offshore wind. The problem isn't supply but distribution: in the U.S. and elsewhere, some of the richest wind resources tend to be far from the densely populated coastal areas that need the most electricity. Another problem is intermittency - even in Chicago, there are days when the wind doesn't below. But both those hurdles can be sidestepped...
...build the turbines, and the electricity will come? Not exactly. For one thing, offshore turbines would likely be necessary in a wind-centric energy future, but local communities in coastal areas have fought against offshore, claiming the turbines spoil seaside views. (One iconic project on Massachusetts' Cape Cod, called Cape Wind, has been tied up in legal challenges for eight years.) But the greatest obstacle is economic. Though the price of power from wind has dropped in recent years, it's still more expensive than most electricity from coal or natural gas. And while Obama the candidate wanted renewables...
...there seems to be little chance of that happening in Washington, in part because the nascent renewable-energy industry lacks lobbying might. "It's hard out there for us," says Duprey. "We're not as well organized as the coal or nuclear industry." Renewables like wind may have science on their side - but that may not matter until they can make their voice heard in Washington...