A new research has found that wind over the oceans, allow offshore turbines to generate far more energy than land-based ones.
Carnegie’s Anna Possner and Ken Caldeira, shows that there is great opportunity for generating wind power in the open ocean.
Because wind speeds are higher on average over ocean than over land, particularly the North Atlantic, wind turbines could in theory intercept more than five times as much energy as wind turbines over land.
This presents an enticing opportunity for generating renewable energy through wind turbines.
North Atlantic wind farms could provide sufficient energy to meet all of civilization’s current needs.
Caldeira said:
“Are the winds so fast just because there is nothing out there to slow them down? Will sticking giant wind farms out there just slow down the winds so much that it is no better than over land?
The real question is, can the atmosphere over the ocean move more energy downward than the atmosphere over land is able to?”
Most of the energy captured by large wind farms originates higher up in the atmosphere and is transported down to the surface where the turbines may extract this energy. Other studies have estimated that there is a maximum rate of electricity generation for land-based wind farms, and have concluded that this maximum rate of energy extraction is limited by the rate at which energy is moved down from faster, higher up winds.
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