A Start on Solving Our Energy Crisis

[Paulie]

Iowa expects by 2015 to genrate over 3GW from wind alone. The wind farms will span many thousands of acres and there will be areas where the turbines will stretch from horizon to horizon. But even at that, still less than .5% of the total rural acreage. However less than a few hundred acres of production will be lost to it. Next door in Nebraska they have plans for upwards 10GW by 2020 from wind alone.

A large coal plant will generate about 1.2GW and power a city of 250,000.

I have read that we could power 25% of the country from wind farms covering less than 10% of great plains states....mostly out of sight of most people.

What an awesome thought, too. I still can't believe that in 2008, with all the technology we've developed over the years, that we can't be energy self-sufficient and use what nature provides us everyday in infinite supply.