Wind power could, yes could, power the entire world.
But, it could not power it reliably nor would it be feasible in many places. You have to think about the amount of land it would take to power cities like tokyo and new york. Then you would have to have enough so when the wind is not blowing at all for long stretches of time the small amount of breeze you would get would still power everything. Finally Money, it does not grow on trees.
Well there's my two cents.

Matt

you fail to realzie that you put them in lakes and such and Chopenhagen already does it and it powers all of Chopenhagen with only about 20 windmills. for Tokyo and new york you might need fifty. and there far out and up high so ther is almost always a wind

and it sounds dreadfully and birds die on them

-~-~-~-~
You have called down the Thunder. Now reap the Whirlwind.
Warning! In the intrest of safety it is advisable to keep Heltak away from Fire and Flames!
He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
Friedrich Nietzsche

And your point is...

you should somehow turn the roads to solarcells. so you drive on them, and get energy from them. look at it. if you get a strong enough fibre to withstand the stress, you'd get ALOT of energy, ALOT more than windmills, besides, alot more scenery-friendly. you dont want to spoil the scene of a beach or a lake with windmills do you ?

and you need alot more than 50 windmills to power big cities like new york. i guess it depends on power output and design of windmills, but seriously, how much can you compare 50 huge fans to a nuklear generator? besides, wind is variable. you dont have wind around the clock. you can have nuke energy around the clock as long as there is enough uranium. what you gonna do in the peak hours ? what if there isn't enough wind, weather's down, on a day? its gonna take out the power.

oh and yeah, point of thread =

Edited by - kimk on 9/9/2004 3:12:09 AM

Esqy would you like to live beside a windfarm?

Something called Noise Pollution

-~-~-~-~
You have called down the Thunder. Now reap the Whirlwind.
Warning! In the intrest of safety it is advisable to keep Heltak away from Fire and Flames!
He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
Friedrich Nietzsche

they are indeed very noisy, and very unsightly too. and their contribution (pro-rata) to the National Grid is negligible.

In remote areas, they would be good. But here in the us, animal lovers are fighting them on the grounds birds fly into them and get killed. I would have one if I lived far from a grid, it would be cheaper.

your concern for your avian subjects is most refreshing, King Vultan.

a few points

one..
windmills are not noisy and even if they were you would put them in remote areas

two...

windmills are very realibile.

three...
if birds are stupid enough to fly into them its good that they die and remove themseles from the gene pool.

four.
if you lose a few birds and make a bit of noise (and it doesn''t) its worth having twice as much power as the world needs and no poluting. have any of you been to copenhagen its not noisy by them and the city is powered by them.

________________________
Last words of Oscar wilde
"either the wallpaper goes or i do"

Solar's the way to go. They have these solar shingles that can power a small household now, and we're just going to be more efficent. Put them on rooftops, and we'll see a dramatic increase in fossil fuel usage without the loss of our less inteligent feathered friends. --- VH16

I am Nobody; Nobody is Perfect; Therefore, I am Perfect

Birds fly into them? Wait a second. The modern commercial generator windmill turns at very low RPMs. You literally can track the blade as it describes its circle with your eyes and not lose sight of them.

But they are not "silent." You hear one or both of the blades cutting through the air, a kind of whooshing, and the generator as it turns inside, depending upon how close you get to them. The ones I have seen are usually around 30 feet up in the air, at least.

They are sited where the winds pretty much blow all the time. This usually means at the top / cretline of abutments, hills, etc. But also out on the prarie flats as well. Either way, they do disrupt the natural landscape.

I think we should use all renewable resources to generate power so long as those technologies actually cost justify themselves or at least pay themselves off in a relatively short time, like say, in two years.

How about a combination of solar and wind. Aaaahhhh! Windmills are cheaper than solar plants (I think) so you could place them in remote areas, such as along highways, which they do in California, along Interstate 5. If you are building them near inhabited areas (cities) you would use solar power so there is no noise pollution, or not as much. The only thing is that you would need quite a few to power a medium-sized city, more so with a large city. If there was a way to harness it from space, we could have even more power. Or maybe I've been reading too much Isaac Asimov.

Canada rules, eh?

oh its possible to harvest it from space but no one wants to and it pays off in the long run not the short run and people dont care about the big picture