Rethinking the Grid
Research suggests that a gigantic network of offshore wind power stations along the Eastern seaboard could potentially provide energy to a large swath of the U.S. without much threat of outages.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences suggests that a gigantic network of offshore wind power stations along the Eastern seaboard could potentially provide energy to a large swath of the U.S. without much threat of outages. The concept, outlined by marine-policy expert Willett Kempton, is to have enough wind stations set far enough apart that the system wouldn’t be affected by the biggest problem that wind power systems generally face — intermittent lack of wind. The study analyzed five years of wind data to determine that combining power from a chain of stations in this way could prevent massive power outages.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
