Wind Power Resources In America Are Abundant & Underdeveloped
Wind power might seem like a fringe source of electricity to some, and critics certainly have gone after it aggressively at times, but it's now a large source of electricity in the United States and many other countries.
From article, (Almost all of the state has modest wind resources, but there is a very thin band of land along the coastline which has very good wind potential. North Carolina has been a conservative state for quite a while, and the GOP has tried to stop wind power development. “Days before the start of operations, Republican legislative leaders appealed to the incoming Trump administration to block the farm, claiming turbines nearly 500 feet tall would interfere with military radar in Virginia.”
North Carolina does have excellent offshore wind resources. “The winds off North Carolina’s coast powered the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903, and they’ve been going strong ever since. In fact, just over 100 years after the first flight, converting just a fraction of the winds off our shores to energy could provide all of North Carolina’s energy needs.”.
Georgia is another conservative state which does not have excellent wind sources to develop, relatively speaking, and yet its wind power potential is over 90,000 MW. Georgia currently does not have a single wind power farm built. “We’ve got more than a power plant worth of wind blowing off our coast and a shallow continental shelf that could make a wind farm easy to install. I hope Gov. Deal and other state leaders heed this wake-up call and start aggressively pursuing offshore wind in Georgia,” explained Jennette Gayer, director of Environment Georgia.
Most of Georgia’s wind power potential may very well be from offshore resources, “A study from Geo-Marine, Inc. indicates that Georgia has about 14.5 gigawatts of feasibly developable offshore wind energy potential–enough to meet about a third of Georgia’s annual electricity needs at today’s consumption rates. Shallow seas and strong breezes help reduce the costs associated with building offshore wind farms in Georgia. According to the Energy Information Association (EIA), Southeastern states (including Georgia) are some of the lowest cost construction sites for offshore wind compared to the rest of the country. Developing our offshore wind potential would mean big economic benefits to the state, including job creation in the construction, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, and shipping industries.”
Though most of Georgia’s onshore wind speeds are not excellent for wind power, using taller turbines might be a suitable option. One source has stated the onshore resources may be better than previously assumed. “In the past five years, wind turbine technology has greatly evolved. Wind turbine towers can reach up to 459 feet (140) meters in height. Taller turbines and longer blades are capable of capturing more wind, thus harnessing more electricity and reducing wind energy prices. As turbines increase in hub height, Georgia contains a much greater area of land viable for development. Approximately 2,500 MW of onshore wind potential currently exist in Georgia.)”
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