It took me a while to parse this sentence:
"The study found that wind energy produces 3,670 megawatts of
electricity in the
state. If that power were used solely within Iowa, it would be enough to power
940,000 homes, or about three-quarters of the state's homes. "
In other words, they ship some of the electricity out of state. A
wind turbine close to the border of the state is likely to send the
power elsewhere. The turbines produce enough electricity to supply
75% of residential buildings (or maybe single family houses?) in
Iowa, but it is not all used in Iowa.
75% of residential buildings sounds too high to me.
For the U.S. as a whole, the "Residential and Commercial" sector uses
19.3 out the total 98.5 quads of U.S. energy (2000 data). Out of 12.3
quads of total Distributed electricity, Residential and Commercial
consume 7.9 quads (64%). Industry consumes 18.1 and Transportation
only 0.02 quads. (Industry makes a lot of its own electricity
nowadays, so it is not "Distributed electricity.") I doubt wind
turbines in Iowa that produce only 20% of their electricity can
supply 75% of houses.
See the last page of:
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/NRELenergyover.pdf
This is a good reality-check, or grand overview.
Somewhere at www.renewableenergyworld.com there is an article saying
that NREL or the DoE recently re-evaluated U.S. land-based wind
resources and came up with a much higher number than the previous
estimate, because towers are so much higher than they were a decade
ago. I can't find the article.
They have so much stuff at that web site and in their periodic
bulletins! This is how a growing industry looks. Cold fusion will not
have fully succeeded until you see sites like this discussing actual
ongoing commercial applications for it. I sometimes doubt we will
ever see that, given the immense political opposition to the research.
- Jed
