Wind Power

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Wind Power

• Energy experts agree that mankind is now near or
  at the peak of oil production. This means that
  after this point every year will see a drop in
  oil production in terms of barrels. This should
  soon have a profound effect on the worlds
  economy, simply because of (1) energy demands are
  growing each year , (2) about 95 of the worlds
  energy is in the form of fossil fuels, mainly
  oil.
• The solution is alternate energy sources. This
  powerpoint is a brief case study of the wind
  energy farms in the Coachella Valley, near Palm
  Springs, California. In this valley, strong
  westerly winds blow steadily all year due to the
  unique geography of this region. A strong
  thermal low draws air from the Pacific into this
  valley, and the wind speed is increased by the
  Venturi effect, as the wind is squeezed between 2
  tall mountain ranges. 85 privately owned wind
  farms are at this location with thousands of
  windmills. Peak energy production from this
  region can be in the order of millions of
  kilowatts and can power millions of home in the
  desert southwestern USA.
• Another way to look at this is mankind is running
  out of time if we dont convert to these
  renewable energy sources. Estimates are that the
  earth had 2 trillion barrels of oil in 1860 when
  mankind first tapped oil use. Since then, half
  of all that oil is now gone. That gives
  humankind 1 trillion more barrels. Estimates are
  that 85 billion barrels of oil are consumed
  worldwide per year. A simple calc. shows that at
  that rate, the oil will run out by about the year
  2020! That is remarkable and could lead to
  planetwide catastrophes.
• A good link for further research is Life after
  the Oil Crash at http//www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.
  net

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Windmills in Palm Springs, CA
Windmills at the bottom of this valley harvest
millions of KW of electricity.
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Windmill closeup photos
These blades look like airplane wings (airfoils)
and use a similar principle.
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Additional windmill photos
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Additional windmills
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Closeup photos

• Notice the size of the windmills!

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More photos
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More photos
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Mount San Jacinto

• The San Georgio Pass between Mt. San Jacinto
  (pictured here) and another mountain range result
  in the strong steady winds in this region.