Global wind potential is 72 trillion watts
WASHINGTON, DC, US, June 8, 2005 (Refocus Weekly)
A new map of wind power has determined that there is sufficient wind energy to easily supply the world's power.
Researchers from Stanford University collected wind speed measurements from
7,500 surface stations and 500 balloon-launch stations to determine global wind
speeds at 80 m above surface, equivalent to the hub height of modern turbines.
When results are interpolated over the world, authors Cristina Archer and Mark
Jacobson estimate that 13% of the world experiences winds with average annual
speeds of 6.9 m per second, which is strong enough for power generation.
Such wind speeds were found in every region of the world, although North America
was found to have the greatest potential, they explain in the Journal of
Geophysical Research, published by the American Geophysical Union. Locations
with suitable wind resources could generate 72 trillion watts of power, compared
with an estimate from the U.S. Department of Energy of 3.5 trillion watts.
“The main implication of this study is that wind, for low-cost wind energy, is
more widely available than was previously recognized," says Arche. “The
methodology in the paper can be utilized for several applications, such as
determining elevated wind speeds in remote areas or to evaluate the benefits of
distributed wind power."
Some of the strongest winds were observed in northern Europe along the North
Sea, while the southern tip of South America and the Australian island of
Tasmania recorded significant and sustained strong winds at the turbine blade
height. In North America, the most consistent winds were found around the Great
Lakes and from ocean breezes along the eastern, western and southern coasts.
Overall, the researchers calculated winds at 80 m travelled over the ocean at
8.6 m/second and at 4.5 m/sec over land.
Capturing even a fraction of the potential from locations with sustainable Class
3 winds could provide the 1.8 TW of electricity that the world consumes.
Converting as little as 20% of potential wind energy to electricity could
satisfy the entirety of the world's energy demands, but the researchers caution
that there are considerable practical barriers to reaping the wind's potential
energy.
The largest barrier would be to create and maintain a dense array of turbines to
harness the wind, with some sources suggesting that millions of turbines would
be needed, while conventional power facilities would still be needed to provide
power when wind speeds fall below a threshold. Creating a large field of
turbines could also be hazardous to birds and may produce unacceptable noise
levels, the report notes.
Global wind capacity has increased by 34% per year during the past five years,
but the perceived intermittency of winds and the difficulty in identifying good
wind locations in developing countries have been the two main barriers, it
explains. “The first barrier can be ameliorated by linking multiple windfarms
together; such approach can virtually eliminate low wind speed events and thus
substantially minimize wind power intermittency.”
Offshore windfarms have higher wind speed and greater power production, and data
from 81 buoys or platforms showed that 60% had average wind speeds of 9.34 m/sec
(class 6) at 80 m height, which is 90% greater than land-based turbines on
average.
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