Studies find Earth has enough wind to power the world

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(CBS/AP) - Two new studies say Earth has more than enough wind to power the entire world, at least technically.

One study, conducted by Carnegie Institution for Science and published in "Nature Climate Change," focused on the total planetary availability of wind power. The first line in the study says it all: "There is enough power in Earth's winds to be a primary source of near-zero-emission electric power as the global economy continues to grow through the twenty-first century."

Both studies looked solely at the global geophysical limits of wind power: is there physically enough wind on planet Earth to make wind power a dominant form of energy creation? The answer is a resounding yes.

But the research looks only at physics, not finances. Other experts note it would be too costly to put up all those wind turbines and transmit energy to all consumers. As the Carnegie Institution of Science notes, "It is likely that wind power growth will be limited by economic or environmental factors, not global geophysical limits."

The studies are by two different U.S. science teams and were published in separate journals Sunday and Monday. They calculate existing wind turbine technology could produce hundreds of trillions of watts of power. That's more than 10 times what the world now consumes.

[Bojax39]

"Studies find Earth has enough wind to power the world"

Anybody who has ever stood outside any government building the world over can attest to that. :-)

[micmac666]

Please read Nikolai Tesla.

[john92021]

The big utility companies have skewed the regulations here in CA so smaller start-ups cannot get permits or make it financially impossible to operate thus keeping their profits up. Wind needs transmission lines, the longer the less efficient. They just spent over a billion on a new transmission line here. Our peek is on a hot sunny day for air condition, for 1 billion they could have put solar panels on enough homes to take care of peek. Instead they had so many regulations put in that solar is not financially advisable. We are forced to put in illegal systems. Enough panels to power an air conditioner in the heat of the day (circuit not hooked up to the grid) and small bank of batteries to have a solar generator for back-up. We don't get enough wind to make it feasible, I would put one up but you can't get a permit and it sort of sticks out there for everyone to see. I have no faith in the utility companies because they have a history of gauging and reliability is starting to fail. It is hard to be green when all they want is your green.

[EmpireGeorge______--]

It's just too bad this is energy (electric) and not a fuel, which is required for the 250 million gas powered vehicles on the roads today....while electricity powers many engines, it's not a fuel and it never will be.

[Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals]

What fuels the grid, Empress?

Sheesh. You're all for trying nothing, and hoping that helps.

[Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals]

(before you start whining, Empire, the key word is "fuels"...)

[karek40]

So we invest major world resources to supply our needs from the winds on the earth, have you never read where he (God) said during tribulation he will cause the winds not to blow. Think of the impact.

[honestabe8]

right...the winds are going to stop blowing. and a book said this, eh?

[cbs4111]

Sure, there's enough wind power - except when the wind isn't blowing. Then you have to bring wind power in from somewhere else, at a huge cost. Every wind farm will have to be built to supply both its local demand AND the demand from far-away windless places too.

Germany is now building 24 lignite (coal) plants because their investment in wind didn't work to replace the nuclear power plants that they are about to shut down. The average power generated by a German windmill was only 16% of the windmill's rated capacity.

[helloall34]

"...because their investment in wind didn't work to replace the nuclear power plants that they are about to shut down....

Not true. They are successfully ramping up their wind power, especially offshore. This has been going on for about the last 10 years, and is planned out for another 20 years from now. These things do not happen overnight. They are huge investments. Countries must slowly wean themselves off fossil fuels (if they wish to do so), it can not be done overnight.

[shenboe]

I worked in windpower industry technical development area before my retirement a year ago. While there is potential for offshore windpower, it is and will continue to be significantly more expensive than land windpower because of the hostile conditions that force the equipment to be more expensive and the difficulty of servicing at sea as opposed to on land.

[Ulgnud]

Sure it might have the energy. But efficient extraction and distribution is the issue. They don't figure that into the calculations. Industry cannot rely on the whims of wind to operate.

[dgammons]

Ulgnud, you negate the possibility of storing up wind energy as one would do solar to use on sunless days.

[hsinco-2009]

Nor can it continue to ignore the costs of controlling and storing nuclear waste as it relates to the cost of electricity from nume plants.

[Cigar_Smoker]

Fossil Fuel - Well, the name pretty much sums it up. Once it's gone, well it's "gone"...

[karek40]

There is no such thing as fossil fuel, we are finding pools of natural gas and oils on the moons of Jupiter & Saturn. Never been a dino there. Some idiot in the 1700's made a statement that a tiny insect died and that tiny drop of oil from that insect soaked down into the earth and that is where the oil deposits came from. I will agree coal is from trees/woody folage. Forms in a very short time under pressure and shear.

[Jaylah54200]

But neither wind nor solar power makes money for the GOP's Big Oil buddies.

[jamead1]

Sounds to me like they made a bad investment.

[dgammons]

It will when big oil buys up all the wind farms.

[johnlockesghost]

In a word, the problem is transportation.