I'm writing a CVM scenario and wanted to bounce something off a group of anonymous, but expert, commenters. Does this sound about right?
Suppose that a wind farm is proposed for North Carolina. The farm would have 100 large electricity-generating wind turbines, standing about 400 feet high and 1 mile from the shore. The wind farm would produce enough energy to supply electricity to 75 thousand homes in North Carolina.
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Now suppose that wind farms are proposed for each of the 31 major beach towns in North Carolina. The wind farms would produce enough energy to supply electricity to over one-half of all homes in North Carolina.
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Now suppose that wind farms are proposed for each of the 31 major beach towns in North Carolina. The wind farms would produce enough energy to supply electricity to over one-half of all homes in North Carolina.
Here are the calculations:
- one large wind turbine generates 2.5 MW
- the product of 100 turbines and 2.5 MW is 250 MW
- a megawatt of wind generates electricity for, at most, 300 homes
- the product of 250 MW and 300 homes is 75,000 homes
- the product of 31 wind farms and 75,000 is 2.3 million homes
- 2.3 million is 56% of 4.1 million NC housing units
Source: AWEA
