Stanford Researchers Map Out Alternative Energy Plan For New York

In the shadow of the controversial decision whether or not to allow hydraulic fracturing in the State of New York, researchers at Stanford University has laid out a plan on the use of alternative energy.

Hydraulic fracturing is the creation and propagation of fractures in a rock layer. It is a process used to extract petroleum, natural gas and other substances from source rocks.

There have been harsh criticism and environmental concerns with the process of hydraulic fracturing. The State of New York will soon decide whether to approve this process in the state. Supporters of the decision feel that it will bring an economic boom from the resulting jobs and that it will help end dependence on imported oil.

Researchers believe that instead of focusing on hydraulic fracturing, it will be best environmentally and economically to focus on using alternative energy such as solar and wind power instead.

Surface And Atmospheric Winds Can Meet All of the World's Energy Demand

Wind power uses the energy of the wind to generate energy. It can be harnessed to produce electricity, power mechanical machines, or used to move vehicles or objects.

One established and still emerging use for wind power is in the production of electricity. Wind farms are set up with hundreds of wind turbines that is connected to an electrical network. These are usually situated in places with frequent and consistent powerful winds. These grid of turbines are then used for commercial or residential power.

Wind farms are also used in conjunction with solar energy to provide power to isolated places that are not connected to an electrical network.

The largest capacity wind turbine is the Enercon E-126 with a rated capacity of 7.58 megawatts (MW). It is 198 meters high (650 ft) and has a diameter of 126 meters (413 ft). In terms of productivity, the most productive wind farm is the one in Rønland wind farm in Denmark. The four turbines in the farm generates 63.2 MW each.

Enough wind to power global energy demand

There is enough energy available in winds to meet all of the world's demand. Atmospheric turbines that convert steadier and faster high-altitude winds into energy could generate even more power than ground- and ocean-based units. New research from Carnegie's Ken Caldeira examines the limits of the amount of power that could be harvested from winds, as well as the effects high-altitude wind power could have on the climate as a whole. Their work is published September 9 by Nature Climate Change.

Led by Kate Marvel of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who began this research at Carnegie, the team used models to quantify the amount of power that could be generated from both surface and atmospheric winds. Surface winds were defined as those that can be accessed by turbines supported by towers on land or rising out of the sea. High-altitude winds were defined as those that can be accessed by technology merging turbines and kites. The study looked only at the geophysical limitations of these techniques, not technical or economic factors.