Wind Energy Can Help

Wind energy is great, if we are realistic about what it can do. The 4500 or so wind turbines in Altamount Pass, Calif., or 100 to be built off-shore, near Cape Cod, or a thousand in West Texas, might sound good. However, such small numbers couldn't produce important amounts of energy.
On the other hand, if America launches a century-long campaign to build one million, 2000-kw, wind turbines, we would be getting somewhere. 500, 2000kw wind turbines equal the rated energy of one, 1,000,000kw nuclear plant. Since they depend on the wind, it will take four times 500, or 2000 wind turbines to equal one nuke. In current $, one million turbines may cost $2T. This is doable, although production of cement to make the concrete footings for one million turbines might be difficult. Currently, cement production creates 4% of the world's CO2 each year.
1,000,000, 2000kw, turbines would equal 500 nukes, or 20,000,000 barrels of oil per day, or nearly twice as much energy as we get from coal each year. How good it would be if part of such clean, wind energy would allow closing many of America's dirtiest coal-burning plants. Building 1,000,000 wind turbines would not be easy though.
Germany's wind energy program is a good example. They have built more than 15,000 wind turbines so far, and plan a total of 40,000 by 2030. Guessing that these will average about 2000kw output, 40,000 will equal 20 nuclear electric plants. However, Germany is also planning to dismantle their 18 nuclear plants during the same time frame. If they do this, their clean energy will be only marginally better. Germany is the world's fifth most powerful economy, and they are only planning 40,000 turbines in thirty years. Where in the world will the orders come from to build the millions and millions of turbines that are needed, both to supplant fossil fuel plants and to increase energy for development.
Per US Department of Energy, America consumed 101Q (BTU) of energy in 2005. Rounding off slightly, fossil fuels were 85Q and other, non-CO2, fuels gave 15Q. A reasonable answer to the coming oil shortage, and global warming crisis, would be to continue using the same amount of fossil fuels (we may not be able to do anything else). America's population will increase, maybe even double this century. All of the 100Q of new energy for the population increase should be clean, non-CO2. The one million wind turbines would equal 40Q; 500 additional nukes would equal another 40Q; 80Q would be pretty close to the energy need for a larger population. However, millions of people want and deserve better lives, so economic development must also continue. Conservation, increased efficiency, biomass, etc. would have to do the rest. Fossil fuels will still be in use.
Earth's total current energy consumption is equal to 210 MBPD of oil, or 5200, one-gig, nukes, or 10,400,000, 2000kw, wind turbines.