To get a substantial portion of our electricity from wind means building hundreds of thousands of turbines. They're affordable, so we could do that. But we usually don’t live in the windiest areas, so we’ll also need to build transmission lines – which is harder than building the wind farm itself. If the wind stops blowing when we need the power, we’ve got to replace it quickly with some other generation. Hopefully, challenges of siting, transmission and backup generation won’t make this clean, affordable resource, unaffordable.
Your 2-minute take on wind, with Dr. Scott Tinker
Dr. Ernie Moniz Director, MIT Energy Initiative
On siting and transmission for wind
Full InterviewBarry Smitherman Chairman, Public Utility Commission of Texas
Describing how to balance the intermittency of wind power
Full InterviewBarry Smitherman Chairman, Public Utility Commission of Texas
On building transmission for wind electricity
Full InterviewCliff Etheredge Wind Farmer
Explaining how to arrange turbines in a wind farm
Full InterviewDr. Richard Muller Physicist, Berkeley National Lab and Professor, UC Berkeley
Discussing wind and solar
Full InterviewDr. Lynn Orr and Dr. Sally Benson Stanford University Energy Program Directors
Outlining some challenges for wind
Full InterviewScott Anderson Senior Policy Advisor, Environmental Defense Fund
Explaining the environmental challenges of wind
Full InterviewCliff Etheredge Wind Farmer
On how to build the world’s biggest wind farm
Full InterviewCliff Etheredge Wind Farmer
On what farmers earn by leasing land to wind developers
Full InterviewScott Anderson Senior Policy Advisor, Environmental Defense Fund
Describing how new transmission is essential for wind projects
Full InterviewCliff Etheredge Wind Farmer
On getting wind power onto the transmission lines
Full InterviewDr. Steve Koonin US Undersecretary of Energy
Explaining the basics, and the potential, of windpower
Full InterviewScott Anderson Senior Policy Advisor, Environmental Defense Fund
On the pros and cons of wind
Full InterviewJesse Ausubel Program for the Human Environment, Rockefeller University
On why wind and other renewables are not green
Full InterviewCliff Etheredge Wind Farmer
Describing the community benefits of wind
Full Interview