RE: Slowing down the wind (a finite resource)
March 9, 2014 at 11:14 am
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2014 at 11:23 am by Heywood.)
Wind does move planetary heat....so he got that right.
Wind turbines do slow down the wind that powers them....so he got that right.
Now lets make a couple of assumptions.
Assumption 1. The average wind turbine generates 1.8 megawatts.
Assumption 2. The world uses 143 petawatts(143 quadrillion watts) annually.
Conclusion: 79,444,444,444 wind turbines rated at 1.8 megawatts would be needed to meet the current energy demands.
The surface area of the world is 196,940,000 square miles. So 403 wind turbines per square mile would be needed to meet current annual world energy consumption.
I bet 403 wind turbines per square mile would significantly slow the winds down. I bet 1 wind turbine per square mile would slow the winds down and thus increase the temperature measurably in certain places.
It is foolish to think that wind power has no downsides and this politician is saying, "Hey we should consider the downsides". If you're going to demonize him, do it for something meaningful...like he's against gay marriage or something.
Wind turbines do slow down the wind that powers them....so he got that right.
Now lets make a couple of assumptions.
Assumption 1. The average wind turbine generates 1.8 megawatts.
Assumption 2. The world uses 143 petawatts(143 quadrillion watts) annually.
Conclusion: 79,444,444,444 wind turbines rated at 1.8 megawatts would be needed to meet the current energy demands.
The surface area of the world is 196,940,000 square miles. So 403 wind turbines per square mile would be needed to meet current annual world energy consumption.
I bet 403 wind turbines per square mile would significantly slow the winds down. I bet 1 wind turbine per square mile would slow the winds down and thus increase the temperature measurably in certain places.
It is foolish to think that wind power has no downsides and this politician is saying, "Hey we should consider the downsides". If you're going to demonize him, do it for something meaningful...like he's against gay marriage or something.
