The last reading in the assignment talked about wind power. The article said that the wind could provide enough energy for all of Europe and eventually provide all of the US energy requirements. It said that presently there is enough wind energy generated in California to provide energy for all of San Francisco. I did not know anything about this source of energy. It was hard to imagine is this was a viable source of energy for our planet or just a new fangled toy. Is it the truth that it could work or just a lot of hot air.
The American Wind energy Association Website says that in 1981 the US had ten megawatts of installed capacity of wind power. This has increased to four thousand six hundred and eighty five megawatts of energy today. The last number may not be totally accurate as it is based on what the developers said would be in place by this date. In total there are twenty-nine states that have some sort of wind energy in place. I wondered how much wind is needed and found out that for a small grid you need wind exceeding eleven miles per hour and for a wind farm you need wind exceeding thirteen miles per hour.
The European Wind Energy Association Website said, "Europe is not rich in oil, coal, or gas but has huge wind resources". The target of the European Wind Energy Associations is to have installed by 2010 enough projects on land to produce sixty thousand megawatts of power and by the year 2020 be able to produce one hundred and fifty thousand megawatts of power. This would be enough to provide power to seventy five million people. To date there are projects in fifteen different countries in Europe providing a total of twenty two thousand six hundred and six megawatts of power. They are also talking about offshore installations that would provide power but not touch or occupy the land resources.
The British Wind Energy Association was established in 1978 and they had interesting data on their Website.