Eideard

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A team of environmental scientists from Harvard and Tsinghua University has demonstrated the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China. Using extensive meteorological data and incorporating the Chinese government’s energy-bidding and financial restrictions for delivering wind power, the researchers estimate that wind alone has the potential to meet the country’s electricity demands projected for 2030.

The switch from coal and other fossil fuels to greener wind-based energy could also mitigate CO2 emissions, thereby reducing pollution…

China has become second only to the United States in its national power-generating capacity — 792.5 gigawatts per year with an expected future 10 percent annual increase — and is now the world’s largest CO2 emitter. Thus, added McElroy, “the real question for the globe is: What alternatives does China have?”

While wind-generated energy accounts for only 0.4 percent of China’s total current electricity supply, the country is rapidly becoming the world’s fastest-growing market for wind power, trailing only the United States, Germany, and Spain in terms of installed capacities of existing wind farms.

Development of renewable energy in China, especially wind, received an important boost with passage of the Renewable Energy Law in 2005; the law provides favorable tax status for alternative energy investments. The Chinese government also established a concession bidding process to guarantee a reasonable return for large wind projects…

“By bringing the capabilities of atmospheric science to the study of energy we were able to view the wind resource in a total context,” explained co-author Chris P. Nielsen, executive director of the Harvard China Project, based at SEAS.

The analysis indicated that a network of wind turbines operating at as little as 20 percent of their rated capacity could provide potentially as much as 24.7 petawatt-hours of electricity annually, or more than seven times China’s current consumption. The researchers also determined that wind energy alone, at around 7.6 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour, could accommodate the country’s entire demand for electricity projected for 2030.

“Wind farms would only need to take up land areas of 0.5 million square kilometers, or regions about three-quarters of the size of Texas. The physical footprints of wind turbines would be even smaller, allowing the areas to remain agricultural,” said Lu.

Here in New Mexico the state engineer’s office produced a study almost two decades ago confirming our capacity to be a net-energy-exporting state on wind power alone. Eventually, our Public Utility put in a token windpower field – and charges significantly more for that electricity even with the subsidies they received to build the project.

They’re happy enough raking in profits from electricity generated by truly low-grade coal up in the Four Corners – and selling the juice to Greater Los Angeles.