As humanity aggressively steps forward into the 21st century, our demands for energy have continued to skyrocket. Thus, the need for sustainable energy sources have become more critical than ever before, especially due to the detrimental effects of fossil fuel usage. New research published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science indicates that the wind energy potential over oceans could theoretically power human civilization. However, this would require extensive portions of the world’s oceans to be covered with wind turbines. The installation and the maintenance of this project would be difficult and unlikely due to the volatility of ocean environments; the project could even alter climate conditions. Nonetheless, wind speeds over the ocean tend to be 70% higher than on land. Over some sections of the oceans, storms regularly transfer wind energy down to surface level from higher altitudes; this indicates that the amount of energy that can be captured with floating turbines is higher than that of land turbines. Although these ideas are merely theoretical, and are undermined by many practical and seemingly inevitable issues, they emphasize the importance of adopting alternative sources of energy in the future.
Are #FloatingWindFarms the key way to harvest the #WindEnergyPotential over oceans? Perhaps. #bcsfh2ohttps://t.co/swavfLPpx7
— Jordan Williams (@jordwill98) October 11, 2017
