Converting the Entirety of Americans’ Energy Use to Wind
A reader asks: How many windmills would we need per person to replace fossil fuels? How much room would this take up?
In the United States, we consume 5.4 terawatts (5.4 * 1012 Watts). The average wind turbine is a couple of megawatts, for convenience, let’s say 2.7 megawatts (2.7 * 106 Watts).
(5.4 * 1012 Watts) / (2.7 * 106 Watts) = (2 * 106 ) = 2 million turbines.
If 2 * 106 turbines would serve 3.3 * 108 people, each turbine would supply 3.3 * 108 / 2 * 106 , or 165 people.
For the area of land required, there are 3.5 * 106 square miles in the continental U.S., and 6.4 * 102 acres in a square mile, meaning that there are 2.3 * 109 acres. There are 1.5 acres required per turbine, so we have room for about 1.6 * 109 turbines.
Thus, converting the entirety of Americans’ energy use to wind would require about 0.1% of the total land mass.
We also need to keep in mind that this land can serve other purposes simultaneously, e.g., grow crops, and raising animals.
Useful analysis. As far as I can see you haven’t made the usual error of just including electricity consumption rather than total energy consumption (gas, coal etc) in the US. Could you please confirm this?
Yes, it’s total energy consumption (power, actually).
Let’s not forget that US energy usage is anomalously high compared to most other nations.
A concerted effort to bring all lights, appliances, buildings, vehicles etc. up to the efficiency standards typical in Europe, or better yet the best available standard could considerably reduce the number of wind turbines needed.
Excellent point.