Blown Away: Wind Potential Is 40 Times What We Use

Who doesn't love a surprise bounty? It's like reaching for your wallet to retrieve your last $5, only to unfold it and find $20 tucked in there.

So too with what we previously thought compared to what we now know about wind energy resources, thanks to a new study by a team of Harvard scientists that suggests we've merely scratched the surface. Wind energy has the potential to supply not simply all the electricity we are currently consuming worldwide. Wind energy has the potential to generate 40 times the amount of electricity we are currently consuming worldwide. Relying upon thousands of meteorological data points around the world, and by applying a conservative assumption of 2.5 to 3.0 megawatt turbines operating over time at an average 20 percent of capacity, the study blows away the seven times current usage factor that was previously held up as the potential for wind power.

As with all manner of natural resources, wind is not evenly distributed. Wind velocities tend to increase at higher elevations. And some of the most consistently windy regions of the world are distant from dense population, which necessarily introduces the need for better distribution systems.

Still, the news comes as a breath of fresh air. Even for the United States, the world's 900-pound gorilla of energy consumption, the news is encouraging: We could generate 16 times our current usage from wind.

Photo courtesy of Dirk Ingo Franke via Wikimedia Commons.