A lot of hot air

A study says the world’s wind alone could meet its energy needs; the Senate disagrees. 1

A new study by some smart scientists at Stanford University suggests that global wind resources are good enough to produce 72 terawatts of electricity with current turbine technology. That's about 40 times the amount of electricity the world used in the year 2000!

In other hot air news, Sen. Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy committee, described Sen. Wyden's (D-OR) proposal of funding parity for coal and renewables as a "joke" during the energy bill markup today.

Question to Stanford scientists: How much electricity could the collective sighs of sustainable energy supporters produce?  

Ana Unruh Cohen is the director of environmental policy at the Center for American Progress and a frequent Grist blogger.

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  1. amazingdrx Posted 5:18 am
    18 May 2005

    Wind, a very small footprint on planet earth.30,000 20 megawatt continuous equivalent rated wind machines would provide all the electric power now generated in the US.
    Each wind machine would take up aproximately   2500 aquare feet for the tower footprint.  Wildlife, crops, or cows could do fine underneath the blades.
    That uses a total land area less than 3 square miles.  Less than .0001 percent of the US land area?
    How much land, groundwater, and air in square miles have the fossil and nuclear industries occupied, polluted, and destroyed.  
    Through generating plants, mines, wells, pipelines,refineries, waste sities, processing facilities....thousands of sites all over the US, leaking into air and groundwater at exponential rates of expansion.

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