How many windmills would it take to supply energy for about 25-35K households and 3,000 small buildings?

Question

The number of (average size) windmills per 1,000 capita approximations would be helpful.

It would also be necessary to include for the amount of business/ government buildings one would find in a small town (or an island) of 65-90 thousand people.

(Think Bermuda, Cayman Islands, etc. where there is a near constant breeze.)

--Winds average 10-15 knots.

--Temperatures average 82 degrees, so A/C is a necessity.

--Buildings are mainly: banks, hotels, accounting firms, stores, and government buildings, and average three stories.

Please site sources where possible.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Considering where this situation is geographically, you might want to include solar panels as another source since there is a lot of sun. A combination of the two sources would be awesome. Sorry this doesn't answer your question but it might add something.

Answer 2

In the US, I believe you need about 10KW (10000 Watts) of available power per avg. home. Lets assume the other buildings are the same. 38,000 X 10000 = 380,000,000 Watts, or 380 Megawatts. An avg modern fairly large windmill will produce 1-3 Megawatts. Lets use 2 MW/Windmill. You would need about 190 Windmills. If the homes were small and did not use a lot of power, you may only need 100.

Keep in mind, this is very expensive power unless the wind blows above about 8MPH most of the time. About 8 is the minimum for them to produce much power. You still need back-up power because the wind does not blow all the time. You also need an enormous area to put that many windmills. I work near a large field of them and I would guess about 8-10 acres per Windmill.

Answer 3

I was watching "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe Monday night and he was cleaning windmills in Colorado. They said that 129 windmills can generate power to 80,000 residents.