North America Has Untapped Energy

Sep 30 - InTech

WIND IS THE FASTEST GROWING source of electricity in the world, and the U.S. has the most.

Stanford University scientists produced a world map that plots wind power potential for the first time. They say harnessing even 20% of that energy would produce eight times more electricity than the world consumed in 2000.

"The main implication of this study is that wind, for low-cost wind energy, is more widely available than was previously recognized," said Cristina Archer, formerly of Stanford's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Colleague Mark Jacobsen collected wind-speed measurements from 7,500 surface stations and 500 balloon-launch stations to determine wind speeds at 80 meters (300 feet), the height of modern turbines. They found average wind speeds capable of generating power-upwards of 6.9 meters per second, or 15 miles an hour-in 13% of the stations and in all regions of the globe.

North America had the greatest potential for wind energy with consistent winds found in the Great Lakes region and along both the northeastern and northwestern coasts. Some of the strongest winds were in northern Europe in the North Sea, off the southern tip of South America, and around the Australian island of Tasmania.

Wind is already the fastest growing source of energy in the world, with average annual growth of 34% over the past five years. But it currently produces just 0.54% of electricity used. Installed annual capacity at the end of 2003 stood at 39,000 megawatts. Germany produced almost 40% of that total, with wind power contributing 20% of its overall electricity supplies.

But Archer and Jacobsen estimate locations with sustainable winds could produce approximately 72 terawatts-72 trillion watts-a year. It would take more than 500 nuclear power stations to generate a terawatt, and in 2000, the world consumed just 1.8 terawatts total.

Critics of wind power say you would, need densely packed wind farms to capture an acceptable level of energy, spoiling their local environment and posing a threat to bird life. They also argue winds are unreliable and back-up sources of energy would still be necessary.