September 5, 2001—The United States should make a large investment in wind farming to help meet the nation’s electricity needs and address global warming, say two energy experts from Stanford’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Writing in the August 24 issue of the journal Science, Associate Professor Mark Z. Jacobson and Teaching Professor Gilbert M. Masters noted, “Much of the recent US energy debate has focused on increasing coal use. Since the 1980s, though, the direct cost of energy from large wind turbines has dropped to 3 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, comparable with that from new pulverized-coal power plants. Given that health and environmental costs of coal are another 2 to 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, wind energy is unequivocally less expensive than is coal energy.”
The authors pointed to the indirect costs of coal-generated power plants, including the production of smog that causes asthma and other respiratory illnesses; carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming; and acid rain that destroys lakes and forests. They also cited statistics from the Centers for Disease Control showing that coal dust kills some 2,000 US mineworkers annually and has cost taxpayers approximately $35 billion in monetary and medical benefits to former miners since 1973.
They recommended that the federal government should either go into the energy business for itself, or foster wind energy through tax incentives that would catalyze private-sector investment.
For more information, contact Stanford’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
