A wind farm in the ocean can power the whole human civilization. Yes, you heard it right, researchers published a paper claiming that a wind farm as big as India can power fulfil the energy needs of the whole world.

Wind Turbines In The Ocean

Scientists ran a computer simulation which showed that a wind farm in the North Atlantic ocean can fuel the whole world. Though the farm needs to be as big as India. These wind turbines can generate 4 times more energy than the turbines on land. As a result, this finding made the scientist community very excited.

The two U.S scientists (doctors Anna Posner and Ken Caldeira) found that a three million square kilometre farm could generate 18 terawatts (TW) per year. It is almost the same as humans usually use in one year.

“We found that giant ocean-based wind farms are able to tap into the energy of the winds throughout much of the atmosphere whereas wind farms onshore remain constrained by the near-surface wind resources,” said Dr Possner.

The research showed that the wind blowing through the North Atlantic ocean is on average seven times stronger than anywhere on the land. Also the wind there is continuous and stays the same throughout the year.

The scientists added: “Nevertheless, even in the relative calm of summer, the upper geophysical limit on sustained wind power in the North Atlantic alone could be sufficient to supply all of Europe’s electricity.”

The growing needs of energy are one the biggest concerns of modern humans. A lot of people in the developing or underdeveloped countries face serious scarcity of energy. Also, the environmental factors related to conventional energy resourcing methods are very concerning. The energy need will grow exponentially in the next decade. Therefore we must find some new methods to power the world. We can’t just rely on the fossil fuels.

Also published on Medium.