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[Editor’s note: This is Part I of a five-part series by Vaclav Smil that provides an essential basis for the understanding of energy transitions and use. Dr. Smil is widely considered to be one of

the world's leading energy experts. His views deserve careful study and understanding as a basis for today's contentious energy policy debates. Good intentions or simply desired ends must

square with energy reality, the basis of Smil's worldview.

http://vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/uploads/docs/smil-article-power-density-primer.pdf

Actual power densities vary with average wind speeds and turbine sizes. Altamont, America’s

pioneering large wind farm in California, rates only 0.6 W/m2

Puget Sound Energy’s Wild Horse (with a high capacity factor of 32%) has power density of 2 W/m2

The world’s largest offshore wind installation, London Array in the outer Thames estuary – designed to have a capacity of 1 GWp, annual generation of 31 TWh (354 MW) and an area of 245 km2 – will have

power density of just 1.44 W/m2

. A good approximation of expected power densities for large scale wind generation (year-round average, not the peak power) should not be thus higher than 2 W/m2

.

If 10% of the US electricity generated in 2009 (395 TWh or 45 GW) were to be produced

by large wind farms their area would have to cover at least 22,500 km2 , roughly the size of New Hampshire.

https://www.masterresource.org/smil-vaclav/smil-density-new-renewables-iv/

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