Bank error in your favor!

If I told you that the bank had been underestimating the balance of your account, and that your actual balance was three times what you thought it was, you would probably express some serious happiness. And then go about finding the best way to use it or make it work for you.

Well, the Department of Energy did just that. A new estimate of the United States' wind power potential was just released, and it is three times the previous estimate! Can this be real? I think so. But first the numbers.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and their contractor AWS Truewind, found that the contiguous 48 states have the potential to generate up to 37 million gigawatt hours annually. The previous estimate being 12. By contrast, total U.S. electricity generation from all sources was roughly 4 million gigawatt hours in 2009. This total energy yield could be generated using current wind turbine technology on the nation's windy lands. (The estimates show what is possible, not what will actually be developed.)

So how did this happen, and why aren't we using it?

The new estimates reflect advances in wind turbine technology that have occurred since DOE's last national wind resource assessments were conducted in 1993. For example, previous wind resource maps showed predicted average wind speeds at a height of 50 meters, which was the height of most wind turbine towers at the time. Turns out that new wind farms today are going up on 80 or even 100 meter towers. The new maps show predicted average wind speeds at an 80-meter height, the height of today's turbines. Because wind speed generally increases with height, turbines built on taller towers can capture more energy and generate more electricity.

The new estimates also incorporate updated capacity factors. This means that turbine blades are now better designed, and that the generation machinery itself has been improved to allow power generation at lower wind speeds. In industry parlance, this is known as the "cut in speed." This is important because power companies dislike wind power because it is often simply not available. Lower cut in speeds increase the availability of wind power.

The stumbling block in all this is that the nation's power grid is a ramshackle old tangle of wires linking a hodge-podge of control systems, relays, power companies, and jurisdictions. It's a mess. It's also stretched pretty thinly over the places where the greatest wind potential exists. (See the map.) So that's the bad news.

The good news is that this isn't rocket science. Grid technology is well-established, even to the point where accommodating 'smart grid' technologies, which are still in development, isn't too hard. And building a grid incites an avalanche of 'green' jobs that even legislators from conservative states, where the bulk of the wind power is, would support. It's just a matter of getting this on the political radar. And the way that's done is with local Renewable Energy Portfolio requirements imposed on utilities.

So here's a good place where local action has national implications. If anyone's looking for meaningful local green energy campaign to energize, this would be it.