How Viable Is Large Scale Wind Energy? 345
New submitter notscientific writes "Renewable sources of energy are obviously a hit but they have as yet failed to live up to the hype. A new study in Nature Climate Change shows however that there is more than enough power to be harnessed from the wind to sustain Earth's entire population... x200! To generate energy from the wind, we may however need to set up wind farms at altitudes of 200-20,000 metres. To be fair, the study is purely theoretical and does not look at the feasibility of such potential wind farms. Regardless, the paper does provide a major boost to backers of wind-generated energy. Science has confirmed that the sky's the limit."
Bob Dylan was right ... (Score:4, Funny)
He knew that: ''The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind''
Re:Consistent availability is the issue (Score:3, Funny)
Look at your turbine, now look at me, look back at your turbine, your turbine is now a diamond!
Re:While it can be done... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Consistent availability is the issue (Score:4, Funny)
1. Build backup power sources which can meet all your energy demands (for when there is no wind)
That's not hard to solve. That's why we have politicians.
Re:While it can be done... (Score:4, Funny)
1. How are we going to keep those turbines up at altitude?
It's obvious. We need to get a bunch of cobblestone blocks and make a huge spire. Then we place the wind turbines at the top and build out. Once we are done, we pull out our diamond pickaxe and get rid of the cobblestone stairs up to the wind farm. Oh wait.... Too much Minecraft last night....