A new study on wind power potential world-wide indicates that previous estimates were inaccurate and that much more wind power may be available in California, the U.S. and the rest of the world. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. A team of Harvard researchers evaluated data from meteorological stations from all over the world. The team estimated that the world wind power potential may be 40 times greater than the total current world power consumption. Previous studies have estimated the potential to be 7 times higher.
The study was widely cited in blogs and other publications. The New York Times Green, Inc. Blog also reported on the study.
For the United States the researchers found that there is potential to accommodate as much as 16 times the total current demand for power in the contiguous U.S. The findings of the researchers are significant since the U.S. Department of Energy released an estimate in 2008 concluding that wind power may not be able to provide more than 1/5 of the total U.S. electricity demand by the year of 2030.
