The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences calculates that the wind energy can achieve an annual capacity of 7.5TW by installing four million turbines. This is more than 50% of the 11.5TW power estimated to be required by 2030. This means, there need to be 100 wind turbines for each one currently available.
The study was conducted by professors Cristina Archer of Delaware University and Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, California.
The study published in the Nature Climate Change puts the potential of wind power at 20 times the current capacity. Co-author of the study Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science said that there are enough wind resources available to achieve the potential but the economic and the engineering aspects are to be looked into.
