Post by Kronks on Jan 28, 2019 7:25:54 GMT
How much wind power is there?
I was a bit bored so I decide to see how much wind power we use in terms of hurricanes
It was either that or unify general relativity and quantum mechanics, so I though I'd go for the easy option.
A while back I did some sums or rather I googled how much wind energy there is....
So about 425 GWatts anually 425000000000 = 4.25 x 10^11 watts of wind power installed.
The I looked up how much wind power in a hurricane.
science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/energy-hurricane-volcano-earthquake1.htm
If we start by looking at just the energy generated by the winds, we find that for a typical mature hurricane, we get numbers in the range of 1.5 x 10^12 Watts
So the two relevant number for 1.5 x 10^12 = 15.0 x 10^11 watts
and-------------------------------------------------4.25 x 10^11 watts
So we took about 1/3rd (15/4.25) of a hurricane from the wind in 2015.
Getting more up to date
That is about 5.4 x 10^11 watts
The overall capacity of all wind turbines installed worldwide by the end of 2017 reached 539'291 Megawatt
That is about 5.4 x 10^11 watts
So still one third of a hurricane.
On average, 10.1 named storms occur each season, with an average of 5.9 becoming hurricanes and 2.5 becoming major hurricanes
0.33/5.9=0.05=5%
So we have reduced hurricanes by 5%
If we double it it would be 10%
If we increase wind power by a factor of 20 we will have no hurricanes left.
So food for thought!!!
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Update, "with an average of 5.9 becoming hurricanes and 2.5 becoming major hurricanes". I took that as 5.9
hurricanes a year, not sure if that is the right way to do it.
Anyhow if we are taking the equivalent of 1/3 of a hurricane out of the 5.9 hurricanes available annually that is not insignificant, especially is we plan on a lot more wind power.
Hurricanes also serve useful purposes they stir up nutrients from the ocean floor.
So there is no free lunch in energy!
On top of that they also produce warming.