Amount of territory required to power the U.S. with solar[/caption]
Some months ago I published a story about how small an area would be required to create solar installations that could power the entire U.S.. It was was strikingly small.
Now here, in this report, is a statement of what it would take to power the nation with wind. To me the take away from both of these stories is that whether it is solar, or wind, or some combination of the two, with tidal and geothermal thrown into the mix the capacity to create non-carbon power is already available. The challenge is not technical so much as political.
A new study has found that the North Atlantic ocean has the ideal conditions for wind farms, such as the Block Island Wind Farm that opened up off the coast of Rhode Island last year
Credit: Deepwater Wind
Wind is one of the cleanest energy sources available, and the US is sitting next to a gold mine. A new study has found that wind speeds over the oceans could allow offshore turbines to generate far more energy than a land-based wind farm – with the North Atlantic, in particular, theoretically able to provide enough energy for all of human civilization.
In tapping into wind as an energy source, the US has for decades lagged behind Europe and UK, which are home to the largest offshore wind farms in the world, including the London Array and the Netherlands’ Gemini wind farm. But the US is catching up: the country’s first facility opened up off the coast of Rhode Island last year, and if the Trident Winds project goes ahead, it […]
Thank you Stephen for sharing! great article!
oops, My apologies! I missed spelled your name- Stephan
Agreed. Excellent article.