PLUG IN TO EAST COAST WINDS

Look what this very astute scientific analysis of wind energy says about plug-in hybrids in the bold print below.

Researchers find substantial wind resource of Mid-Atlantic coast
February 2, 2007 (PhysOrg.com)

- The wind resource off the Mid-Atlantic coast could supply the energy needs of nine states from Massachusetts to North Carolina, plus the District of Columbia--with enough left over to support a 50 percent increase in future energy demand--according to a study [published in the Jan. 24 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a peer-reviewed scientific journal produced by the American Geophysical Union, a nonprofit organization of geophysicists with more than 49,000 members in 140 countries] by researchers at the University of Delaware and Stanford University.
- …the wind over the Middle Atlantic Bight, the aquatic region from Cape Cod, Mass., to Cape Hatteras, N.C., could produce 330 gigawatts (GW) of average electrical power if thousands of wind turbines were installed off the coast.
- The estimated power supply from offshore wind substantially exceeds the region's current energy use…185 gigawatts, from electricity, gasoline, fuel oil and natural gas sources…
- Supplying the region's energy needs with offshore wind power would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 68 percent and reduce greenhouse gases by 57 percent…
- The study marks the first empirical analysis in the United States of a large-scale region's potential offshore wind-energy supply using a model that links geophysics with wind-electric technology--and that defines where wind turbines at sea may be located in relation to water depth, geology and "exclusion zones" for bird flyways, shipping lanes and other uses…

- The Delaware Green Energy Fund, UD's College of Marine and Earth Studies, the Delaware Sea Grant College Program and the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford supported the study…
- The scientists began by developing a model of the lowest atmospheric layer over the ocean…
- The scientists examined current wind-turbine technologies to determine the depth of the water and the distance from shore the wind turbines could be located. They also defined "exclusion zones" where wind turbines could not be installed…
- To estimate the size of the wind power resource, the researchers needed to figure out the maximum number of wind turbines that could be erected and the region's average wind power. The spacing used between the hypothetical wind turbines was about one-half mile apart…

- Anemometer readings from the nine NOAA weather buoys in the Middle Atlantic Bight were analyzed. To determine the average wind over the region, the scientists reviewed all the wind-speed data from the past 21 years…findings were then extrapolated to the height of the offshore wind turbines currently being manufactured…
- The scientists' estimate of the full-resource, average wind power output of 330 gigawatts over the Middle Atlantic Bight is based on the installation of 166,720 wind turbines, each generating up to 5 megawatts of power. The wind turbines would be located at varying distances from shore, out to 100 meters of water depth, over an ocean area spanning more than 50,000 square miles, from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras.
- …oil and natural gas resources of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf--the submerged land that lies seaward from 3 miles offshore and is under federal jurisdiction--…amount to only one-tenth of the wind resource and would be exhausted in 20 years…
- …the researchers note that offshore wind is not uniform and offer suggestions for addressing power fluctuations…To make wind power more uniform, the study shows that multiple sites could be connected through power lines to reduce the number of times of both maximum and minimum power…Changes in new and replacement energy-using devices, including automobiles, also could provide for greater power storage…"Battery and plug-in hybrid automobiles, for example, have large storage that is unused when the car is parked…"
- On the practicality of producing 166,720 wind turbines…the United States began producing 2,000 warplanes per year in 1939 for World War II, increased production each year, and, by 1946, had sent 257,000 aircraft into service…using 1940s technology…