GEOL 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Wind Farm
21 Sep 2020
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Winds generate about 5x more power than total global energy consumption. North dakota could provide 1/3 of us electrical needs. 2008: wind generates 1. 5% of global electrical supply. 20% denmark, around 15% spain & portugal, Cost down 80% in last 20 years (disputed) Not consistent in many areas (wind is not always blowing) < class 3 = wind energy not viable, class 3 or above = ok to use) Home turbine: 30 ft tall, blades 7-25 ft long. Industrial turbine: 20 stories tall, blades about 100 ft long. People objecting to a windfarm that would be built 5. 5 miles offshore. Government has reduced fines for wind farm bird deaths for the next 30 years (wind turbines kill 1 bird/yr on avg) Bats, insects, ppl only care about the cute animals. Grow algae, then convert their lipids into biofuel. Can yield 15-400x more energy per acre than other biofuel crops (ex: corn grown for ethanol)
