Thread: Can wind power be used up?

I was just reading an article at:
Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear | MNN - Mother Nature Network

where the japanese have some new technology in turbines to triple the output of typical windmills.

My question is ...

Can wind power be used up? Like say we replaced all other electric producing sources with wind power ... would the earth have less wind? How would the mass production of windmills effect the wind on the surface of the earth?

Wind power is solar energy.

World energy consumption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says worldwide energy consumption is 142.3 TWh (terawatt hours)

Insolation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says that the earth receives on average 1,366 watts per square meter (although it might be better to use the lower figure of 250 watts). The area of the earth (Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) is 5.1 x 10¹⁴ square meters, and the number of hours in a year is 365 x 24, so the total energy from the sun might be 250 x 5.1 x 10¹⁴ x 365 x 24 /10¹² terawatt hours. That's 1.1 billion TWh

So how many computer monitors could we power? ;-)

Originally Posted by grapes

Wind power is solar energy.

World energy consumption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says worldwide energy consumption is 142.3 TWh (terawatt hours)

Insolation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says that the earth receives on average 1,366 watts per square meter (although it might be better to use the lower figure of 250 watts). The area of the earth (Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) is 5.1 x 10¹⁴ square meters, and the number of hours in a year is 365 x 24, so the total energy from the sun might be 250 x 5.1 x 10¹⁴ x 365 x 24 /10¹² terawatt hours. That's 1.1 billion TWh

So say we built 1/2 that many windmills .... what impact would it have on the wind on the surface of the earth?

Originally Posted by grapes

Wind power is solar energy.

World energy consumption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says worldwide energy consumption is 142.3 TWh (terawatt hours)

Insolation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says that the earth receives on average 1,366 watts per square meter (although it might be better to use the lower figure of 250 watts). The area of the earth (Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) is 5.1 x 10¹⁴ square meters, and the number of hours in a year is 365 x 24, so the total energy from the sun might be 250 x 5.1 x 10¹⁴ x 365 x 24 /10¹² terawatt hours. That's 1.1 billion TWh

You mean, so we extracted half of our total energy consumption from those windmills?

That'd have to have some sort of effect, right?

Let's see that's about one ten-millionth of the total insolation, so all we need is one ten-millionth of the earth extracting sunlight--50 square kilometers. Did I do that right?

Maybe half as much sunshine, since the Sun always shines on only half of the Earth?

Perhaps we could compensate for the energy taken from the wind by where we build our population centres and what colour we paint our houses.
For example, the south coast of Spain used to be brown (and green) but now there is a line of white tourist hotels (almost) all along the coast. Someone might know how this has affected airflow (and convection), rainfall, etc.

Originally Posted by TaoZero5

Maybe half as much sunshine, since the Sun always shines on only half of the Earth?

The wiki said average insolation, so I'm assuming that's already taken into account in that figure. Not absolutely sure.

Probably a valid assumtion, now I think about it.
(insolation is a new word to me)

It is good to see the German and Japanese governments getting really serious about sustainable energy sources. IMO it is also necessary to get really serious about population control and maximum energy use per capita. There is so much waste.

Originally Posted by RayTomes

It is good to see the German and Japanese governments getting really serious about sustainable energy sources. IMO it is also necessary to get really serious about population control and maximum energy use per capita. There is so much waste.

You bring up an interesting concept, Ray. Who 'wastes' more energy: CERN or Mr. Joe Average?