Since my mind works in this manner, let me make an unsubstantiated and AFAIK currently unprovable assertion.
If enough countries in the world tap surface winds to meet most of their energy requirements, they will certainly alter surface wind patterns to an extent that is likely to have environmental consequences that nobody knows anything about. We will being to see the fallout perhaps 50 years after wind farms become commonplace when we are celebrating the fact that less carbon is going into th air. shiv On Friday 14 Dec 2007 9:56 am, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > The schedule sounds unrealistic to me. Comments from those who know more? > > Udhay > > http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/10/news/international/britian_turbines.ap/inde >x.htm > > 'Wind' electricity in every home: UK plan > British business secretary outlines goal of 60-fold increase in > offshore wind farm production by 2020. > December 10 2007: 3:24 PM EST > > The need for self-suffiency leaves Britian no choice, says business > secretary John Hutton. > > LONDON (AP) -- Britain unveiled plans Monday to generate enough > electricity through offshore wind farms to power every home in the > country by 2020, increasing production more than 60-fold and changing > the look of its coastlines. > > Britain's wind-swept coasts and shallow waters are ideal for offshore > turbines, but wind generated power currently accounts for less than 2 > percent of its energy generation. > > Business secretary John Hutton said the government planned to reach > the target through a fourfold increase in the amount of space off > Britain's shores allocated for wind farms. > > The move would change Britain's coasts, Hutton acknowledged, but said > the need for energy self-sufficiency left the country with no choice. > He said the plans would depend on environmental impact studies. > > "But if we could manage to achieve this, by 2020 enough electricity > could be generated off our shores to power the equivalent of all of > the U.K.'s homes," Hutton said in a statement. > > The British Wind Energy Association, a trade body that represents the > country's wind and marine energy industries, welcomed plans for more > offshore wind farm sites, but it said it would be difficult to raise > Britain's wind power production from half a gigawatt currently to 33 > gigawatts by 2020 - the equivalent of the energy now consumed by > every British home. > > Eight gigawatts' worth of wind generation projects are already > planned, but the group said the limited supply of turbines meant the > amount of wind energy produced by 2020 would likely be closer to 20 > gigawatts. > > "We'd really be struggling from a 'Where can we get the turbines?"' > point of view, said Gordon Edge, the association's economics director. > > Environmental campaigners and opposition lawmakers welcomed the plan, > but some noted that wind generated power is expensive. Wind > power-generated electricity is currently costlier to generate than > its coal- or gas-generated counterpart. > > Massive new offshore wind farms, such as the 1 gigawatt London > project planned for the Thames estuary in the country's southeast, > are due to go online by 2014. According to the BWEA, the country is > on track to overtake Denmark as the world's largest generator of > offshore wind power next year.
