Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: How much electric energy is produced by wind power in the U.S.?
The 2011 NREL report, "Large-Scale Offshore Wind Power in the United States", analyzes the current state of the offshore wind energy industry. According to the report, offshore wind resource development would help the country to achieve 20% of its electric power from wind by 2030 and to revitalize the manufacturing sector. Offshore wind could supply 54 gigawatts of capacity to the nation's electrical grid, thereby increasing energy security. It could also generate an estimated $200 billion in new economic activity and create thousands of permanent jobs. NREL’s report concludes that "the development of the nation’s offshore wind resources can provide many potential benefits, and that offshore wind energy could play a vital role in future U.S. energy markets".
As also parts of the desert regions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) come with high wind potential, Dii is examining in which geographic regions the installation of wind farms is suitable. Wind turbines produce electricity by wind turning the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator which produces electricity. The Sahara Desert is one of the windiest areas on the planet, especially on the western coast where lies the Atlantic coastal desert along Western Sahara and Mauritania. The annual average wind speed at the ground greatly exceeds 5 m/s in most of the desert, and even approach 8 m/s or 9 m/s along the western ocean coast. It's important to note that wind speed increases with height. The regularity and the constancy of winds in arid regions are major assets for wind energy, too. The winds blow nearly constantly over the desert and there are generally no windless days during throughout the year. Therefore, the desert of North Africa is also an ideal location to install large-scale wind parks and wind turbines with very good productivity.
A photovoltaic system, or solar PV system is a power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and directly convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to change the electric current from DC to AC, as well as mounting, cabling and other electrical accessories. PV systems range from small, roof-top mounted or building-integrated systems with capacities from a few to several tens of kilowatts, to large utility-scale power stations of hundreds of megawatts. Nowadays, most PV systems are grid-connected, while stand-alone systems only account for a small portion of the market.
The 122 PW of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface is plentiful—almost 10,000 times more than the 13 TW equivalent of average power consumed in 2005 by humans. This abundance leads to the suggestion that it will not be long before solar energy will become the world's primary energy source. Additionally, solar electric generation has the highest power density (global mean of 170 W/m) among renewable energies.
Renewable Energy Business.  Influenced by architect, inventor and philosopher, "Buckminster Fuller", who believed in the importance of "renewable energy", Osborne began to focus on the renewable energy business in the late 1970s by building "passive solar homes" and selling energy-saving wood stoves. In 1981 he developed the first "wind energy" project (consisting of five 25-kilowatt "wind turbines") that sold energy to an "electric utility" in Texas. in 1983, he signed on as the first distributor in Texas for "Solarex", a now-defunct maker of "solar cells" used then as power sources for such things as ranch gates, railroad signals and other places where stringing power lines was difficult or expensive. In the 1990s he ran the Texas operations for "Zond Energy", which is now part of "GE Wind Energy", the largest U.S. "wind turbine" maker. Throughout the 80's and 90s, Osborne documented and leased the wind resource for Texas wind fields. Many of his exploits are documented in the book, "The Great Texas Wind Rush".
All forms of energy are either potential energy (e.g. Chemical, gravitational, electrical energy, temperature differential, latent heat, etc.) or kinetic energy (e.g. momentum). Some technologies provide only short-term energy storage, and others can be very long-term such as power to gas using hydrogen or methane and the storage of heat or cold between opposing seasons in deep aquifers or bedrock. A wind-up clock stores potential energy (in this case mechanical, in the spring tension), a battery stores readily convertible chemical energy to operate a mobile phone, and a hydroelectric dam stores energy in a reservoir as gravitational potential energy. Ice storage tanks store ice (thermal energy in the form of latent heat) at night to meet peak demand for cooling. Fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline store ancient energy derived from sunlight by organisms that later died, became buried and over time were then converted into these fuels. Even food (which is made by the same process as fossil fuels) is a form of energy stored in chemical form.
As a 17-year-old, Johannes Juul (1887–1969) had studied wind electricity applications under Poul la Cour at Askov Højskole, a folk high school, in 1904. In the early 1950s, he built two smaller alternating current turbines which operated at Vester Egesborg near Næstved and on the island of Bogø. His three-bladed Gedser facility (1957) was Denmark's first large wind turbine. With a blade span of , it produced 200 kW of alternating current fed directly into the grid. Its electromechanical yawing, asynchronous generator, and the three stall-regulated blades with emergency aerodynamic tip brakes (these were invented by Juul) is a design that is still widely used in Denmark. Stall control was provided through an asynchronous generator. The turbine, which for many years was the world's largest, operated from 1957 to 1967 without maintenance, demonstrating incredible durability. In connection with NASA testing for the U.S. wind energy programme, it was refurbished in 1975 and brought back into operation. It continued to run for a few years, providing test data for the further development of wind turbines in Denmark. Over the course of its lifetime, the Gedser wind turbine generated 2.2 million kW-hours (7.9 TJ).
Wheat is produced in almost every state in the United States, and is the principal cereal grain grown in the country. The type and quantity vary between regions. The US is ranked third in production volume of wheat, with almost 58 million tons produced in the 2012–2013 growing season, behind only China and India (But the combined production of all European Union nations is larger than that of China). The US is ranked first in crop export volume; almost 50% of its total wheat production is exported.
The potential for generating solar energy from the Sahara Desert is huge, the highest found on the globe. Professor David Faiman of Ben-Gurion University has stated that the technology now exists to supply all of the world's electricity needs from 10% of the Sahara Desert. Desertec Industrial Initiative was a consortium seeking $560 billion to invest in North African solar and wind installations over the next forty years to supply electricity to Europe via cable lines running under the Mediterranean Sea. European interest in the Sahara Desert stems from its two aspects: the almost continual daytime sunshine and plenty of unused land. The Sahara receives more sunshine per acre than any part of Europe. The Sahara Desert also has the empty space totalling hundreds of square miles required to house fields of mirrors for solar plants.
Wheat is produced throughout the Midwest and is the principal cereal grain in the country. The U.S. is ranked third in production volume of wheat, with almost 58 million tons produced in the 2012–2013 growing season, behind only China and India (the combined production of all European Union nations is larger than China) The U.S. ranks first in crop export volume; almost 50 percent of total wheat produced is exported.
Meanwhile, electric ceiling fans became very popular in other countries, particularly those with hot climates, such as India and the Middle East, where a lack of infrastructure and/or financial resources made energy-hungry and complex freon-based air conditioning equipment impractical. In 1973, Texas entrepreneur H. W. (Hub) Markwardt began importing highly efficient ceiling fans to the United States that were manufactured in India by Crompton Greaves, Ltd. Crompton Greaves had been manufacturing ceiling fans since 1937 through a joint venture formed by Greaves Cotton of India and Crompton Parkinson of England, and had perfected the world's most energy efficient ceiling fans thanks to its patented 20 pole induction motor with a highly efficient heat-dissipating cast aluminum rotor. These Indian manufactured ceiling fans caught on slowly at first, but Markwardt's Encon Industries branded ceiling fans (which stood for ENergy CONservation) eventually found great success during the energy crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, since they consumed far less energy (under 70 watts of electricity) than the antiquated shaded pole motors used in most other American made fans. The fans became very effective energy saving appliances for residential and commercial use by supplementing expensive air conditioning with a cooling wind-chill effect. Fans used for comfort create a wind chill by increasing the heat transfer coefficient, but do not lower temperatures directly.
Due to this renewed commercial success using ceiling fans effectively as an energy conservation application, many American manufacturers also started to produce, or significantly increase production of, ceiling fans. In addition to the imported Encon ceiling fans, the Casablanca Fan Company was founded in 1974. Other American manufacturers of the time included the Hunter Fan Co. (which was then a division of Robbins & Myers, Inc), FASCO (F. A. Smith Co.), and Emerson Electric; which was often branded as Sears-Roebuck.
At the Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse in Lewes, strong waves destroyed the lower deck of the lighthouse, while powerful winds blew out the watchroom window. A group of eight volunteers quickly repaired the damage. Moderate wind gusts knocked down numerous trees, tree limbs, and power lines, causing widespread power outages in the state. Conectiv Energy reported the power outage associated with the hurricane as one of the worst in its history. At least 15,300 were left without power during the worst of the hurricane, including 2,500 in the capital city of Dover. Due to the power outages, only one traffic light north of the city of Wilmington was operational. The strong winds also resulted in the Delaware River and Bay Authority to reduce the speed limit on the Delaware Memorial Bridge to 40 mph (65 km/h). 62 roads throughout the state were initially closed due to flooding, downed trees, or downed power lines. Eight roads, including U.S. Route 13A remained closed for several days, primarily due to flooding. Flooding affected the cities of Seaford, Blades, Bayview, and Augustine Beach, with residents in the latter two being forced to evacuate due to severe flooding conditions. Several state parks reported downed trees and damage. Damage in the state totaled $40 million (2003 USD, $44 million 2006 USD), and there were no deaths in the state as a result of the storm.
Dr. Santoso joined the faculty at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. He teaches courses in the broad area of electric power systems, particularly in power quality, modeling and simulation of electrical transients and wind power systems. Since becoming professor, he has graduated seven doctoral and twenty-four master’s students.
The annual average insolation, which represents the total amount of solar radiation energy received on a given area and on a giver period, is about 2,500 kWh/(m² year) over the region and this number can soar up to almost 3,000 kWh/(m² year) in the best cases. The weather features of the Sahara Desert, especially the insolation, have a pronounced nature. The annual electricity production reaches 1,300,000 TWh at maximum in this sun-drenched area if the whole desert is covered in solar panels.
The desert is also extremely vast covering about some 9,000,000 km² (3,474,920 sq mi), being almost as large as China or the United States and is sparsely populated, making it possible to set up large solar farms without a negative impact on inhabitants of the region, too. Lastly, sand deserts can provide silicon, a raw material that is essential in the production of solar panels.
The northeast blackout of 1965 was a significant disruption in the supply of electricity on Tuesday, November 9, 1965, affecting parts of Ontario in Canada and Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Vermont in the United States. Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles (207,000 km) were left without electricity for up to 13 hours.
On August 14, the Northeast blackout of 2003, a wide-area power failure in the northeastern US and central Canada, affected over 55 million people.
Strong winds from the hurricane significantly affected four counties in the state, which damaged or destroyed over 730,000 houses and buildings, while leaving more than 1 million without power. The storm surge impacted portions of Miami-Dade County, peaking at around 16.9 feet (5.2 m) just north of Homestead near the Burger King International Headquarters; the surge caused significant damage to boats and to the Charles Deering Estate. The nationwide maximum rainfall total from the hurricane was 13.98 inches (355 mm) in the western portion of Miami-Dade County. No major flooding was reported in the state. The hurricane caused about $25.3 billion (1992 USD) in damage and 44 deaths in the state—15 directly from the storm's effects and 29 indirectly related. Many other sources, however, estimated that Andrew caused more than $32 billion in damage in the state. Andrew was, at the time, the costliest hurricane in the history of the United States; it was surpassed in subsequent years by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Ike in 2008, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017.
ISO 13600 series (ISO 13600, ISO 13601 and ISO 13602) are intended to be used as tools to define, describe, analyse and compare technical energy systems (TES) at micro and macro levels:In the field of energetics, an energy carrier corresponds only to an energy form (not an energy system) of energy input required by the various sectors of society to perform their functions. Energy carriers (EC) are produced by the energy sector using primary energy sources (PES). The distinction between "Energy Carriers" and "Primary Energy Sources" is extremely important since these two labels refer to energy forms of different quality so that they cannot be aggregated: 1 megajoule (MJ) of EC is not the same as 1 MJ of PES. Sunlight is a main form of primary energy, which can be transformed into plants and then into coal, oil and gas. Solar power and wind power are other derivatives of sunlight. Note that although coal, oil and natural gas are derived from sunlight, they are considered primary energy sources which are extracted from the earth (fossil fuels). Natural uranium is also a primary energy source extracted from the earth but does not come from the decomposition of organisms (mineral fuel).
The current proposal is supported by current NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who has stated that it is critical to defending the United States' energy grid and GPS network. Other supporters include former Air Force Colonel and astronaut Buzz Aldrin, former Air Force Colonel and astronaut Terry Virts, former Marine Corps Colonel and astronaut Jack R. Lousma, former astronaut David Wolf, former astronaut Clayton Anderson, space mogul Elon Musk, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Since 1850, only seven tropical cyclones have brought gale-force winds to the Southwestern United States. They are: The 1858 San Diego hurricane that was reconstructed as just missing landfall in 1858, the 1939 Long Beach tropical storm that made landfall near San Pedro in 1939, the remnants of Tropical Storm Jennifer-Katherine in 1963, the remnants of Hurricane Emily in 1965, the remnants of Hurricane Joanne in 1972, the remnants of Hurricane Kathleen in 1976, and Hurricane Nora in 1997, after it was downgraded to a tropical storm.
Some power was restored by 11 p.m. Most did not get their power back until two days later. In other areas, it took nearly a week or two for power to be restored. At the time, it was the world's second most widespread blackout in history, after the 1999 Southern Brazil blackout. The outage, which was much more widespread than the Northeast Blackout of 1965, affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states.
While direct measurement of the most violent tornado wind speeds is nearly impossible, since conventional anemometers would be destroyed by the intense winds and flying debris, some tornadoes have been scanned by mobile Doppler radar units, which can provide a good estimate of the tornado's winds. The highest wind speed ever measured in a tornado, which is also the highest wind speed ever recorded on the planet, is 301 ± 20 mph (484 ± 32 km/h) in the F5 Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma, tornado which killed 36 people. Though the reading was taken about above the ground, this is a testament to the power of the strongest tornadoes.
Nighttime wind power is considered the most economical form of electrical power with which to synthesize fuel, because the load curve for electricity peaks sharply during the warmest hours of the day, but wind tends to blow slightly more at night than during the day. Therefore, the price of nighttime wind power is often much less expensive than any alternative. Off-peak wind power prices in high wind penetration areas of the U.S. averaged 1.64 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2009, but only 0.71 cents/kWh during the least expensive six hours of the day. Typically, wholesale electricity costs 2 to 5 cents/kWh during the day. Commercial fuel synthesis companies suggest they can produce fuel for less than petroleum fuels when oil costs more than $55 per barrel. The U.S. Navy estimates that shipboard production of jet fuel from nuclear power would cost about $6 per gallon. While that was about twice the petroleum fuel cost in 2010, it is expected to be much less than the market price in less than five years if recent trends continue. Moreover, since the delivery of fuel to a carrier battle group costs about $8 per gallon, shipboard production is already much less expensive. However, U.S. civilian nuclear power is considerably more expensive than wind power. The Navy's estimate that 100 megawatts can produce 41,000 gallons of fuel per day indicates that terrestrial production from wind power would cost less than $1 per gallon.
According to a report by the Interior Department, U.S. wind power – including off-shore turbines – could more than meet U.S. electricity needs. The Department of Energy has said wind power could generate 20% of US electricity by 2030.
Hydroelectric power stations in the United States are currently the largest renewable source of energy, but the second for nominal capacity (behind Wind power in the United States). Hydroelectric power produced 35% of the total renewable electricity in the U.S. in 2015, and 6.1% of the total U.S. electricity.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, wind farms are producing the fastest-growing energy source in the world. American wind farms generated an estimated 35,000 megawatts (MW) of wind energy in 2009, just over two percent of the U.S. electricity supply, powering the equivalent of nearly 10 million homes. Prior to this project, studies for solar power options at the site were extensively studied.