Windy Economics, Energy, and Entertainment

One way to solve USA's economic crisis:

• US consumes 25% of world energy needs.
• World energy needs are 16 Terawatts per year.
• US uses 4 Terawatts per year.
• 1 Terawatt equals 1 million Megawatts.
• A wind turbine creates 5 Megawatts of power.
• Wind turbines only work 1/3rd of the time.
• 3 turbines are needed for constant 5 Mw.
• 3 million wind turbines equal 5 Tw.
• One turbine costs $2 million.
• One turbine needs 2 acres.
• 6 million acres (9375 sq miles) needed.
• 9375 sq mi is about the size of Vermont or New Hampshire.
• $6 Trillion for total cost of needed turbines.
• Cost of Iraq War thus far: $0.5 trillion allocated.
• Cost of Iraq War on economy $3  trillion in lost GDP.
• Length of war is five years thus far.
• Ten years will make it $6 trillion.

If the US devoted it's windy off shore for floating wind turbines, the US could generate 20 times what we would need as an entire nation.

With all the super cheap electricity, we can turn off our coal plants. We can provide free electricity to US residents and businesses. This would encourage business to relocate to the US for free energy. More business means more jobs.

We can sell all the remaining energy to other nations. This would also allow us to wean off of foreign oil. Oil is too valuable as a raw material commodity than it is as fuel anyway. Thus, we win! The environment wins! The economy wins! So, what's stopping us?

The current power companies and current oil companies are stuck in Status Quo. To help them buck the habits of old, we will provide them tax breaks that encourages a rapid transition into wind energy. Being energy will be free to US residents and businesses, the government will contract out the distribution and maintenance of the free energy and it's international management of energy sales to the lowest bidding firms, county by county.

Also, if we finally allow power companies to sell TV and Internet service via their power lines as they do in many nations then cable, phone, and satellite should not hold a monopoly over the distribution of data. These three services have lower penetration rates as do power lines into all parts of our nation. So, not only will we get free energy, but we'll get cheaper Internet and TV services.  That's what an be the incentive for power companies to build turbines.

Finally, if instead of war, in 2003, we vowed to wean US off foreign oil, by 2013 we could have.  We still can if we vow to do it today and end the war now. In 2018 we could rid the world off 25% of its carbon pollution and end many wars over energy.