$3 trillion invested in wind turbines. But we’re only getting 10 megawatts sq mile? How many millions of sq miles will we need for turbines?

Photo above - what do you do when your "world's largest wind turbine" falls apart? Meet China's "world's largest wind power kite", currently being tested in Mongolia.

Hey – you there. Turn off your effin’ light and 65 inch OLED TV. You’re using 60 KwH of electricity every day. (this includes manufacturing the products you buy and the food you eat).

This is only going to get worse. Tech Oligarchs are rushing to build the AI data centers we need to do our kids homework and figure out the odds for our FanDuel wagers. Electricity demand will double (at least) in the next 5 years. That will be 1 billion Megawatt hours. At 10 megawatts per quarte mile that’s . . . holy cow . . . 100 million square miles?

The entire planet only has 60 million square miles of land. About 140 million square miles extra if you want to plunk turbines down in the ocean too. But the only ocean sites suitable for wind farms are on continental shelves, near the coast. You can't use the middle of the Atlantic or Pacific. Please double check my math on the MwH, earth's population, and per capita energy consumption behind these calculations.

Solar isn’t going to fix this. Solar only generates 2 megawatts per square mile. Even if a miracle happened, and solar panel efficient reached 100% of the sun's rays, they still would require more land than wind farms do

We might be screwed. The green energy people aren’t to blame for this fiasco, however. Everything looks like a winner when it first appears. Great news everybody - we can use coal to replace wood burning fireplaces. Cars will make horse and buggies obsolete. Nuclear power will make electricity so cheap there won't even be a meter at your home. AI will do our kids' homework so we can binge-watch Netflix without being disturbed.

China has a new invention they want us to envy. “Wind Kites”. See picture above and link below. Think of a wind turbine flying in the air, tethered by a miles long cable, delivering cheap, renewable power. This would seem to solve the “oops, we ran out of land” problem. And also “middle of the ocean” opportunity. You could anchor these kites to barges, or to giant bolts set 20,000 leagues beneath the sea.

If wind kites actually work. Everything looks good the first time you hear about it. I’m not rooting AGAINST turbine kites. But I am trying to imagine how I will fly from point A to point B without my jet's wing clipping the cable tether. And how well kites work in a hurricane. China’s “biggest on earth” wind turbine fell apart last year during its first 40 mph gust. Who knows what will happen to a kite?

I’m just sayin’ . . .


China tests world’s largest power-generating kite to turn upper winds into electricity