Wind power has already sparked a clean energy revolution, however, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science finds that wind power could provide for the entire world’s current and future energy needs.

In order to estimate something like the planet’s capacity for this, researchers first sectioned Earth into areas of ~ 3,300 square kilometers while surveying local wind speeds every six hours. According to the paper, if 2.5 megawatt turbines crisscrossed the planet, excluding “areas classified as forested, areas occupied by permanent snow or ice, areas covered by water, and areas identified as either developed or urban”, this would work. The possibility of 3.6 megawatt offshore wind turbines was also considered, though restricted to 50 nautical miles off the coast and to oceans depths less than 200 meters.

Using this criteria researchers found wind energy could supply not just the world’s energy requirements, but over forty times the world’s current electrical consumption and over five times the global use of total energy needs.

Good news – thanks, Slashdot

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