RE: Slowing down the wind (a finite resource)
March 10, 2014 at 4:09 am
(This post was last modified: March 10, 2014 at 4:20 am by Wyrd of Gawd.)
(March 9, 2014 at 11:14 am)Heywood Wrote: 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.
Seems legit.
(March 9, 2014 at 9:52 pm)Heywood Wrote:(March 9, 2014 at 12:11 pm)Jacob(smooth) Wrote: Then you're what we in the real world refer to as "a fucking moron"
It wouldn't be hard to design a test to determine if I am the fucking moron or if you are. You can buy thermometers that are accurate to within a thousandth of a degree.
In laboratory with a controlled temperature set up a heat lamp to shine on a surface of a specified area to simulate the sun. Now set up a fan which blows at a constant speed across that surface. Measure the temperature of the air above that surface. Now place a pin wheel on that surface to slow the air blown over the surface. Take the temperature above the surface again. If there is a measurable difference, you are the moron. If there isn't, I am the moron.
Wind speeds were a lot lower when there were tall sailing ships criss-crossing the oceans. Once they stopped using sails the wind speeds increased. If governments were to put huge fleets of sailing ships out in the ocean they could reduce the severity of hurricanes. The ships' sails will slow down the winds.
