The Sound Of Inevitability

Wind energy is coming, it'll just be a matter of where and when. The importance to northern Michigan is that offering green and reliable electricity will attract the type of businesses which attract skilled and high-tech workers.

See:
Why Michigan offshore wind farms are inevitable

Windmill economics are better if the weather is colder, the propeller is bigger, but most importantly if the wind blows faster.

Study: Offshore Wind Turbines Could Pack Punch

If Michigan allowed close to 100,000 wind turbines to be plopped along the shore of the Great Lakes, it would produce enough energy to power the entire Upper Midwest, according to a Michigan State University Land Policy Institute study set to be released today, according to the MIRS News Service.

While acknowledging that such a scenario is absurd, the study "Michigan's Offshore Wind Potential" produced the calculations to show the state what is possible if wind turbines were moved next to and into the Great Lakes.

For example, to use offshore wind energy to satisfy all of Michigan's power demands, the state would need to plop 11,469 wind turbines 10 kilometers offshore at a depth of 60 meters, according to the study, authored by Charles McKeown and Soji Adelaja.