There is enough energy available in winds to meet all of the world's demand. New research published by Nature Climate Change examines the limits of the amount of power that could be harvested from winds, as well as the effects high-altitude wind power could have on the climate as a whole.
Using models, the team was able to determine that more than 400 terrawatts of power could be extracted from surface winds and more than 1,800 terrawatts could be generated by winds extracted throughout the atmosphere. Today, the global power consumption is about 18 TW of power. Near-surface winds could provide more than 20 times today's global power demand and wind turbines on kites could potentially capture 100 times the current global power demand. Source: Nature Climate Change, 2012: Geophysical limits to global wind power (Kate Marvel, Ben Kravitz, Ken Caldeira).
Using models, the team was able to determine that more than 400 terrawatts of power could be extracted from surface winds and more than 1,800 terrawatts could be generated by winds extracted throughout the atmosphere. Today, the global power consumption is about 18 TW of power. Near-surface winds could provide more than 20 times today's global power demand and wind turbines on kites could potentially capture 100 times the current global power demand. Source: Nature Climate Change, 2012: Geophysical limits to global wind power (Kate Marvel, Ben Kravitz, Ken Caldeira).
