The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

From ENN and the Earth Policy Institute, an article to light up our pages - Wind Power Set to Become World's Leading Energy Source.

Some bullet quotes from the above article:

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"In 1991, a national wind resource inventory taken by the U.S. Department of Energy startled the world when it reported that the three most wind-rich states--North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas--had enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy national electricity needs. Now a new study by a team of engineers at Stanford reports that the wind energy potential is actually substantially greater than that estimated in 1991.

Advances in wind turbine design since 1991 allow turbines to operate at lower wind speeds, to harness more of the wind's energy, and to harvest it at greater heights--dramatically expanding the harnessable wind resource. Add to this the recent bullish assessments of offshore wind potential, and the enormity of the wind resource becomes apparent. Wind power can meet not only all U.S. electricity needs, but all U.S. energy needs."

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"If the huge offshore potential is added , it seems likely that wind power could satisfy not only world electricity needs but perhaps even total energy needs."

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"Wind is popular because it is abundant, cheap, inexhaustible, widely distributed, climate-benign, and clean--attributes that no other energy source can match. The cost of wind-generated electricity has dropped from 38¢ a kilowatt-hour in the early 1980s to roughly 4¢ a kilowatt-hour today on prime wind sites. Some recently signed U.S. and U.K. long-term supply contracts are providing electricity at 3¢ a kilowatt-hour. Wind Force 12 projected that the average cost per kilowatt hour of wind-generated electricity will drop to 2.6¢ by 2010 and to 2.1¢ by 2020. U.S. energy consultant Harry Braun says that if wind turbines are mass-produced on assembly lines like automobiles, the cost of wind-generated electricity could drop to 1-2¢ per kilowatt hour."

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"Although wind-generated electricity is already cheap, its cost continues to fall. In contrast with oil, there is no OPEC to set prices for wind."

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"Cheap electricity from wind makes it economical to electrolyze water and produce hydrogen."

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"With the wind industry's engineering know-how and manufacturing experience, it would be relatively easy to scale up the size of the industry, even doubling it annually for several years".

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"For energy investors, growth in the future lies with wind and the hydrogen produced with cheap wind-generated electricity."

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"If the need arises to shift quickly to hydrogen-fueled automobiles, this can be done by converting gasoline-burning internal combustion engines to hydrogen with inexpensive conversion kits."

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"The energy future belongs to wind. The world energy economy became progressively more global during the twentieth century as the world turned to oil. It promises to reverse direction and become more local during the twenty-first century as the world turns to wind, wind-generated hydrogen, and solar cells. Wind and wind-generated hydrogen will shape not only the energy sector of the global economy but the global economy itself."

And from us here at the Great Lakes Zephyr:

"The breeze always blows in the Windy City,
And all her sisters along the shores,
Could they but blow closed eyelids open,
How rich we'd see we are..."

Looks like it's starting to happen. I strongly recommend reading this article - it's telling us something we need to know and jump on. G.W.B. - take note and find a better place to invest your time and energy.