Wind and Electricity

 

Wind Power Turbines and Low Cost Wind Power Turbines

                                                            Introduction

Today's talk will focus on answering an important question: Can wind energy be sufficient to meet the world's electricity needs?

The answer to this question will be through a study conducted by a team of scientists from Stanford University, where scientists said that wind power is capable of generating sustainable electricity that is more than enough to meet the world's electricity needs.

* A detailed explanation of the studies on wind energy

-The team of scientists prepared a global map that monitored for the first time and in detail the potential of wind energy on the planet level

The team said that utilizing only 20 percent of this energy could produce eight times more electricity than the entire world consumed in 2000

-One of the Stanford University scientists says that the main outcome of this study confirms that low-cost wind energy is much more abundant than previously thought.

- Scientists collected wind speed data from 7,500 ground stations and 500 air stations (air balloons) that took measurements at an altitude of 80 meters, which is the average height of modern wind turbines. Scientists found that wind speeds capable of generating electricity, which must exceed 7 meters per second, were available at 13 percent of monitoring stations and throughout the rest of the planet. - North America has the greatest potential for wind energy, especially in the Great Lakes regions and on the northeastern and northwestern coasts. -They found very high wind speeds in northern Europe, in the North Sea, in the southern cone of Latin America, and around the Australian island of Tasmania.

                                                        Conclusion

*Wind energy is the fastest growing energy source in the world and at the same time the least expensive when compared to other sources of energy used in generating electricity. Stanford University scientists confirm that sites where there is sufficient sustainable wind to produce electricity can provide us with about 72 terawatts (i.e. 72 trillion watts annually), while we need 500 nuclear power plants to produce one terawatt of electricity.

*But the picture here is not entirely rosy, as critics of wind energy say that we need vast and dense wind farms in order to produce sufficient energy from wind, which negatively affects the environment and threatens the lives of birds. They also say that wind cannot be completely relied upon and that there will still be a need for other sources of energy generation to support it.

But there is hope that this study will help planners identify good locations for wind farms, especially in developing countries.