Renewable Energy

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in a class i'm taking this quarter, the professor went through the calculations to show that ALL of america's transportation system (cars/trucks/motorcycles/semi's/planes/etc) could be powered by 120,000 windmills.

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Assuming your professor's calculations are correct, 120,000 windmills produces enough power for all of USA's transportation only when you neglect the energy cost of transporting the energy. There is considerable energy lost just pumping it through powerlines, so a central power station will almost never be the solution.

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Well, maybe the prof included that or maybe you need a few more windmills, but central power generation is the status quo. In Southern California we get power from as far away as coal plants in Utah.