Though this is all good discussion and the approach may yield practical
results for a while, it is important to realize that wind can not solve all
the worlds energy problems, and working on a new *source* of energy is the
big problem.
I'll bet wind could supply half the world's energy, especially in countries far from the equator. It could easily supply all energy in the U.S. and Northern Europe, and most in northern China.
Here is an out-of-date wind atlas for the U.S.:
http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/
It is out of date because the potential wind has increased by a very large margin, because wind towers are much taller and they reach farther into the sky and intercept a larger cross-section of the atmosphere. Perhaps if we could develop new carbon filament material capable of building a space elevator, we could also use it to build something similar to wind towers that reach 2 or 3 km into the air. (These would probably not have conventional blades.) If we could build thousands of these we could certainly supply all the energy in the world. On the other hand if we could build space elevators, we could supply all the energy in the world with space-based power systems, which would probably be cheaper and take up less space.
Regarding air-conditioning, in Japan some office complexes and factories close to harbors use LNG as a heat sink for the air-conditioning systems. They have to heat this stuff up anyway, before they can use it.
- Jed
