From Renewable Energy Access (via BloggerJohn at Daily Kos):
February 7, 2007Currently, the US gets about 6% of our energy from renewable sources. Almost all of this 6% comes from hydroelectric power and biomass, two somewhat controversial renewable energy sources. Wind power still accounts for only 0.14% of our total energy. Solar energy accounts for even less: 0.063%. (Remember, this is total energy, not just electricity generation.)
Mid-Atlantic Offshore Wind Potential: 330 GW
by Tracey Bryant
The wind resource off the Mid-Atlantic coast could supply the energy needs of nine states from Massachusetts to North Carolina, plus the District of Columbia -- with enough left over to support a 50 percent increase in future energy demand -- according to a study by researchers at the University of Delaware (UD) and Stanford University.
[snip]
The scientists examined current wind-turbine technologies to determine the depth of the water and the distance from shore the wind turbines could be located. They also defined "exclusion zones" where wind turbines could not be installed, such as major bird flyways, shipping lanes, chemical disposal sites, military restricted areas, borrow sites where sediments are removed for beach renourishment projects, and "visual space" from major tourist beaches.
[snip]
The scientists' estimate of the full-resource, average wind power output of 330 gigawatts over the Middle Atlantic Bight is based on the installation of 166,720 wind turbines, each generating up to 5 megawatts of power. The wind turbines would be located at varying distances from shore, out to 100 meters of water depth, over an ocean area spanning more than 50,000 square miles, from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras.
In comparison to the oil and natural gas resources of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf -- the submerged land that lies seaward from 3 miles offshore and is under federal jurisdiction -- the researchers found that the shelf's reported energy sources would amount to only one-tenth of the wind resource and would be exhausted in 20 years.
However, wind is the second largest growing energy source in the US, behind, unfortunately, natural gas. The investment wheel is starting to turn for wind energy, but it needs to speed up. With the finding described in the fourth paragraph excerpted above, on relative energy potential of oil and gas versus wind, this study challenges the assumption that fossil fuels are the rule and renewables are the exception. On the contrary, by definition, nonrenewable resources are burned up and become the exception, whereas renewable resources become the rule, by definition.
This study should be a huge eye-opener for the American public and those in the halls of Congress. It should be a huge eye-opener for those who have some vague skepticism which says that renewable energy cannot play more than a minor role in supplying our nation's energy demand. It should be a huge eye-opener for those that stubbornly maintain that nuclear power is the only way out of our energy and global warming crises. It is time to accept that renewable energy plus efficiency plus conservation can carry us into a sustainable future. It has always just been a matter of will.
1 comment:
This is a highly subsidized waste of our tax dollars. Wind energy does not work. We would be FORCED to buy a lousy product. I do not want to see my tax dollars used for this! This is an inefficient, unproven technology. Also, the claims of their benefit of reducing pollution or greenhouse gases are greatly exaggerated. Despite decades of experience and huge wind plants in Denmark (Obama always uses Denmark as an example...someone needs to educate him), Germany, and Spain, the giant turbines have not been shown to reduce the use of other fuels on the electric grid -- such as coal and nuclear. All of the new reports coming out of Denmark are now proving that it does not work. It would make our electric bills go up and up and up. We need to let our state politicians know that we will not support this in the mountains or off our coast. I hate it when politicians try to "go green" at our expense. I bet there is a bunch of Appalachian State University Sustainable Energy professors there pushing for this to happen, along with some of the questionable non-profits where they are "adviors" and serve on their "boards." We better check their pockets for "green" money!
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