Study says a deep-sea wind farm the size of India is sufficient to fulfill world's power needs

Moneycontrol News

A deep-sea wind farm of the size of India can solve world’s power problems.

A wind farm of such a magnitude i.e. three million square kilometres in the Atlantic Ocean will be sufficient for our energy needs, a study has shown.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doctors Anna Possner and Ken Caldeira concluded: “On an annual mean basis, the wind power available in the North Atlantic could be sufficient to power the world.”

Construction of such a renewable energy project is most likely to face many significant hurdles as it would require some serious funding and international cooperation. However, if this comes to realisation, it would be a source of continuous flow of energy. The instalment will be much more efficient than the on-shore farm of the same size.

The authors of the paper pointed out that wind speeds are on average 70 percent higher over the Earth’s oceans than over the land.

Though, it is not all about placing wind turbines in the ocean to extract energy. Greater the number of turbines in a farm, lesser the efficiency as the combined drag from the turbines eventually put a cap on the amount of energy which can be extracted.

However, in the ocean, this cap is significantly higher than land. If on land this cap is 1.5 watts per square metre, in the Atlantic, this would be more than 6 watts per square metre. Still, a wind turbine will have to face very harsh conditions of the sea which are also home to one of the most corrosive environments.