could meet the world's energy needs by 2050; this is a new academic
report making similar claims. How much clean energy will be in our
future?
http://www.esi-africa.com/node/12343
Wind power could meet half the world's power needs
Amsterdam, The Netherlands --- ESI-AFRICA.COM --- 04 February 2011 - A
newly released academic study claims that the installation of 3.8
million 5MW wind turbines could generate half the world's power needs
by 2030.
Published in the respected journal 'Energy Policy', and entitled
'Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power,'
the study noted that climate change, pollution, and energy insecurity
were among the greatest problems of our time.
"Addressing them requires major changes in our energy
infrastructure," said two California academics, Mark Z. Jacobson and
Mark A. Delucchi. "Here, we analyse the feasibility of providing
worldwide energy for all purposes (electric power, transportation,
heating/cooling, etc.) from wind, water, and sunlight (WWS)."
Jacobson ‒ who is in the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at Stanford University ‒ and Delucchi ‒ who is in the
Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California ‒
estimated that by combining the 3.8 million wind turbines with enough
concentrated solar, solar PV, geothermal and hydroelectric plants, as
well as wave devices and tidal turbines, by 2030 the world could use
electricity and electrolytic hydrogen for all purposes.
"Such a WWS infrastructure would reduce world power demand by 30% and
required only 0.41% and 0.59% more of the world's land for footprint
and spacing, respectively," they said.
"We suggest producing all new energy with WWS by 2030 and replacing
the pre-existing energy by 2050. Barriers to the plan are primarily
social and political, not technological or economic. The energy cost
in a WWS world should be similar to that of today."
Their study showed that wind power could supply 50% of projected total
global power demand in 2030, while the concentrated solar plants, the
solar PV power plants and the rooftop PV systems could supply another
40%. The remainder would come from geothermal and hydro-electric power
plants, wave devices and tidal turbines.
The study also showed that the total footprint on the ground for the
3.8 million wind turbines would only be 48 sq km, which is smaller
than Manhattan. The existing transmission infrastructure would of
course need to be greatly expanded.
On a European level, The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) is
endorsing a declaration calling for a 100% renewable energy vision by
2050. EWEA believes by 2050 wind energy could supply 50% of Europe's
power needs, provided certain actions were taken ‒ above all the
power grid being extended and upgraded in good time.
The effort would require 3.5 trillion euro's (US$4.8 trillion) a year
in spending by 2035 on modernising buildings and electricity grids and
expanding wind farms and solar parks. It would take until 2040 to pay
off.
This 'Energy Policy' report is the second one this month claiming
that almost all of the world's demand for energy for electricity,
transportation and heating could be met from renewable sources such as
wind, solar and geothermal power by 2050.
"The Energy Report" ‒ a report produced over two years by WWF
with researchers at Dutch organisations Ecofys and the Office for
Metropolitan Architecture ‒ claimed that the share of oil, coal, gas
and nuclear power in the global energy mix could be whittled down to
5% over the next four decades. Energy saving measures could cut total
demand by 15% from 2005 levels, even as the population, industrial
output, freight and passenger travel rise," they said.
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