Anyone with a sense of humor (and history) who is also interested in wind power should be able to appreciate this recent sketch from XKCD available at xkcd. If you’ve never seen xkcd before, consider spending a half hour flipping through the stories there. The founder, Randall Patrick Munroe, is from Somerville Massachusetts and is a programmer who recently worked for NASA.
Random wind facts (to keep this story on topic):
- The US recently passed Germany to have the most wind power of any nation.
- Wind power is the leading renewable energy source (not counting hydro or geothermal) in the US today.
- In 2008 it is estimated that 48 billion kWh were generated by wind turbines (just over 1% of U.S. electricity supply). That’s enough to serve 4.5 million U.S.households.
- U.S. wind energy potential is estimated at 10.8 trillion kWh annually, more than two times the total electricity generated today.
- Wind energy growth rate in the US from 2002 to 2007 has averaged 29%.
- Wind energy has one of the highest payback ratios of any power source. Energy Payback Ratios (EPR) compare the amount of energy produced to the amount of energy it takes to build, run, and ultimately decommission a plant. The more efficient the technology, the higher the EPR.
Click here to visit the source at xkcd:
