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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse
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To: T L Comiskey who wrote (10067)3/8/2010 10:52:09 AM
From: Wharf Rat  Read Replies (1) of 24212
 
Shocking New Estimate of Wind Energy Potential in US
By Johnnie Chamberlin | Published: February 19, 2010
Wired Magazine has a fascinating article on the wind energy potential in the United States. The article sites a US Dept. of Energy report windpoweringamerica.gov stating that the wind energy generating potential in our country is 3 times the previous estimate. So how much energy could we really harvest from the wind? (Hint: A LOT!)

The new report states that from wind power alone we could generate more than 10 times the total energy currently consumed in our country.

Some thoughts:

1. This is great news that you should pass on to your friends and political representatives.

2. Until dramatic improvements are made in battery/energy storage technology and transmission infrastructure, unreliable wind (and solar) energy will not be able to completely replace coal, natural gas, or uranium as fuel sources since the latter can be used around the clock without regard for the weather.

3. Wind turbines kill large numbers of bats and birds. Building hundreds of thousands more turbines will only increase animal kills. Glass windows and feral cats kill billions of birds every year. Climate change threatens to wipe-out thousands of species of birds and other living beings. Clearly climate change is a much greater threat, but research should continue to be done to decrease the impact of wind turbines on birds and bats. Programs to sterilize or otherwise remove feral cats from the wild and to keep house cats indoors could help offset bird deaths caused by wind turbines.

4. Advances in wind and solar energy are bound to continue and will happen more rapidly the more support the public and our government gives to the renewable energy industry. We need to end government subsidies of coal and oil and spend more money funding research into solar, wind, algae, thorium, advanced batteries, and energy efficiency technologies.

cchronicle.com
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