How many wind turbines are needed to meet the electricity demand of the world?

Based on basic mathematical calculations, we can roughly estimate the number of wind turbines to be installed to power the entire planet.

Wind energy is always a resource that is underestimated by low productivity, but in return this is an extremely abundant renewable energy source.

According to Business Insider, although the US has invested in a wind power project of up to 14.5 billion USD last year, however, these wind farms only provide about 4% of US electricity, according to data supplied. granted from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said.

Globally, that ratio is not much greater than even when researchers estimate that wind farms have the potential to produce up to 40 times more electricity than the world needs. consume.

Wind power projects in the world have many different spatial ratios.

Steve Sawyer, general secretary of the Global Wind Energy Commission, had a preliminary calculation of the number of wind turbines to be installed globally to meet human energy needs.

Accordingly, the annual average global electricity consumption is 21,000 Terawatts per hour (TWh), divided by the output of wind energy per hour of 0.005256 TWh. Thus the result gives about 3,995,434 wind turbines in the world.

This number of more than 3.9 million wind turbines will account for about half of Alaska's land if they are placed close together. However, Sawyer said that wind power projects in the world have different spatial ratios depending on location and terrain but need at least 0.05 - 0.1 km ² to produce 1 MW. electricity.

But if wind turbines are located far apart, 3.9 million of these turbines can occupy an extremely large area, something that is still slightly smaller than Spain.

Wind turbines are not always active because of the time spent on routine maintenance.

To make this calculation, Sawyer considered that the average wind turbine had a 2MW output and 30% global efficiency. These turbines can only achieve 30% efficiency at a certain time. Because wind turbines are not always active because of the time spent on routine maintenance.

However, the previous AWEA is estimated, 30% is really a pretty big number. By comparison, wind power projects appear to have higher average efficiency than solar power (20%), and fossil fuel power plants can only operate from 40 -60% capacity.

When multiplying the average potential output of a wind turbine by 2MW with the energy efficiency that can be obtained (30%) and the number of hours of operation per year (8760 hours), you will find the yield estimate. annual electricity, calculated in units MWh for each turbine can produce (5,265 MWh or 0.005265 TWh).

Today's wind turbines have been designed to be higher and larger, allowing for more wind and more electricity.

Depending on the size of the turbine (larger turbines will produce more electricity), we may need less than 3.9 million wind turbines. Besides, if we use high-performance turbines with 4MW output and energy efficiency of 40%, we will only lose about 1.49 million wind turbines to power the world.

Glad that, thanks to technology advances related to wind turbines, the cost of deploying wind power has decreased by 90% since 1980. Today's wind turbines have been designed higher and larger. , allowing for more wind and more electricity. Especially offshore wind farms can provide three times more electricity than wind turbines installed inland.

However, the above comparisons and calculations are for reference only, and it will be difficult for the whole world to build such a large-scale wind power project.