The Plains States in America are Saudi Arabia of Wind
I was watching Good Morning America this morning and the news featured a billionaire, ex-oil man named T-Bone Pickens on the subject of high oil prices. He stated that parts of America are known as the Saudi Arabia of wind and had to agree. His home state of Texas has the largest wind field and is looking to Denmark to explore more off shore wind power along the coast. http://www.windenergynews.com/content/view/945/43/.
He stated there is no sense drilling for more oil in the U.S. There is not enough to sustain us but there is plenty of natural gas and WIND.
Meanwhile, I wondered about the “Saudi Arabia of wind” moniker and found that long-term studies have quantified the amount of mega the U.S. can produce. We’re rich with it. Back in 2004, the U.S. Energy Dept. reported that wind power in the plain state’s region alone can provide more power than the entire nation’s electricity needs. And wind power is competitive with natural gas prices from way back in 2001. http://www.energyjustice.net/solutions/wind/.
According to Energy Justice, North and South Dakota alone have enough wind energy from its highest wind speed sites to supply over half of the electricity needs of the lower 48 states. A group of 12 states in the midsection of the country have enough wind energy potential to produce nearly four times the amount of electricity consumed by the nation in 1990.
Michigan just restored the monopoly by DTE Energy in Michigan, which allows DTE to limit use of alternative energy to only 10%. Does this put a damper on overall use of more wind or solar power in Michigan? Does this limit individuals who want to go with solar and/or wind power for residential use?
July 11th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
There’s still a lot of oil here in Michigan to be drilled and converted into something useful. When are our illustrious “leaders” going to get the temerity to tell the EPA to get lost and reopen the illegally-capped wells?