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A new study has found that all the energy we need -- and much more -- can be found in the windNew research into wind-generated energy has produced a striking conclusion: Harnessing all available wind power would provide more than 40 times the power of the current global electricity consumption.The study, carried out by Xi Lu from Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, James MacElroy from Harvard's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Juha Kiviluoma from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science of the United States. It excluded "forested, urban, permanently ice covered and inland water regions.""It's important to emphasize that this isn't being presented as a realistic plan to achieve a renewable energy nirvana; it's simply an attempt to provide a sense of what's possible," writes John Timmer in an Ars Technica article."In the end, though, the study does make clear that supplying a lot of our energy via wind is possible, and that finding should inform debates about the degree to which it makes sense to do so and the adjustments we'll need to make to our existing energy systems in order to make it happen.""He who sows the wind, reaps a typhoon," goes an old Filipino proverb. If we can harness this energy properly, it may be a typhoon well worth experiencing.GET INVOLVED * Sign a Power of Wind petition urging your senators and representative to support a national renewable electricity standard (US citizens only) * Take the Public Agenda quiz and find out how much you know about energy * Sign the "We Can Solve It" petition for a global treaty on climate changeRELATED POSTS * Congress Tackles Climate Change (June 24, 2009) * In the Dark (June 21, 2009) * What Is Clean Coal? (February 28, 2009) * How Much is 787 Billion? (February 16, 2009) * Gore: "Shake Off Complacency" (January 29, 2009) * Wind Energy Not So Great for Bats (August 18, 2008)image: wind turbine (credit: Wagner Christian)
