Most people really do not have the vaguest idea of the wind resource across the U.S. So it should come as little surprise that they always fall for lines such as "wind could do 10% of the US supply by 2020", or maybe 6%, or maybe 2% if you use some of the Energy Information Agency projections. Of course, the answer to "What is the U.S. wind capacity?" is slightly tricky, and it has less to do with the wind resource than most people might suspect.

Strange? Well, here's the reason. The correct question is not "What is the wind energy capacity?" or "What is the wind resource?", but more correctly "What is the wind energy capacity at some given production price?". The question and resulting answers, to be proper, have to have that price part (you could even do cost, but people and partnerships/coops/companies and other entities like to make a profit). Besides, if you make a profit on the sale of the produced electricity, at least you have covered your costs......

Now that that is out of the way, lets define the "wind resource universe" as Ethyl Acetate, vinyl acetate, Ethyl biodiesel esters and other potential fuels and basic chemicals. Or you can react the H2 and CO2 to make "syn-gas" and water; separate the water out and the syngas and more H2 can be used to make gasoline, diesel fuels, Ethane, Propane, Butane and other chemicals/feedstocks. The CO2 could also be fully reduced to CH4, which is readily shippable and useful in numerous ways. Or this electricity could be used to make things like aluminum, silicon, titanium, sodium, boron, magnesium, chloralkalis, ceramics and other electro-chemicals/electrometals.

One use that is expanding is wind turbine manufacture...it also makes sense to assemble these/make the components of these with as much wind turbine energy as can be done.

So, there are lots of ways to use the wind resource of the midwest, and especially the sparsely populated regions of the upper midwest. All in a global climate friendly mode. Using these lands as solely wind plantations does not have to be the only choice. Who knows, maybe it will make life on the farm a viable option, something equated with economic growth instead of population decline.

Also cross-posted on http://www.strandedwind.org

Note: Many of the farming regions in the US midwest/west or just about everywhere have been getting less populated and "older" as a net migration of people are attracted to areas, with, among other things, greater economic vitality. Until recently, as crop prices declined, farm sizes have increased and population densities have decreased. Some kind of economics in action, but not a very viable kind. Ultra depressed prices like in the late 1990's/early 2000's don't bode well for the farm economy....anywhere. Then along comes modern wind turbines.....and higher energy prices. Still, getting a price of 5 c/kw-hr for wind derived electricity is considered to be a good thing in the windy areas of the Great Plains. But maybe that's commonplace across the Atlantic.....or maybe not. As well as 8 m/s hub height winds, which I guess are there in Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, and Norway.

Also cross-posted on
http://www.eurotrib.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2008/1/7/13172/36411

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