Wind power 'could provide total US electricity needs'

摘要

US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is decidedly bullish about the potential for wind power. His department's latest assessment of the scope for oil, gas and renewables on the outer continental shelf reckons the potential in the wind off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts is more than enough to meet the whole country's current electricity demand.rnGranted, that would involve installing turbines in some of the more expensive and problematic deeper water sites. But even just exploiting relatively shallow waters would enable most coastal states to satisfy a fifth of their total power needs from turbines, the study says.