http://www.physorg.com/news4117.html

Good article with one error - a terawatt is actually a trillion watts (not a billion). The wind potential over the oceans appears to be the best source for wind, but developing this region will be technically challenging and costly. NREL has come out with some cost and energy yield figures, as well as a reasoned approach, for potential wind energy development along US coasts - see: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/36313.pdf . Lets hope that proper planning, data collection/analyses and adequate environmental review precedes any strategy to industrialize the world"s oceans. The rush to develop wind energy on Applachian ridgetops has the unexpected consequence of killing a very large number of bats - see: http://www.batcon.org/newsletter/enews-0804/article1.html and http://www.vawind.org/Assets/Docs/BCI_ridgetop_advisory.pdf .

Sorry about the terawatt error. It has already been corrected on the EurekAlert! and AGU web sites, where the original press release appears.

No, it's not.
http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0514.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/200...u-gwm051605.php

Still says: "The study also estimated the amount of global wind power that could be harvested at locations with suitably strong winds. The authors found that the locations with sustainable Class 3 winds could produce approximately 72 terawatts and that capturing even a fraction of that energy could provide the 1.6-1.8 terawatts that made up the world's electricity usage in the year 2000. A terawatt is 1 trillion watts, a quantity of energy that would otherwise require more than 500 nuclear reactors or thousands of coal-burning plants. Converting as little as 20 percent of potential wind energy to electricity could satisfy the entirety of the world's energy demands, but the researchers caution that there are considerable practical barriers to reaping the wind's potential energy."

So, do we get a look-see at this map?

Yes, I too would like to get a glimpse at this map. NASA paid for part of the study - does that not mean that taxpayers have a right to see the data?

Chasing down the links, it appears that this info has been carefully restricted.

JUST GIVE US A LOOK PLZ

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but I think the 1.4-1.6 terawatts figure for world electricity generation should be 14 to 16 TWh. The EIA shows world electricity generation as about 16,000 GW in the most recent year. That would convert to 16 TWs or about 55 quads.
However, 72 TW is still about 4 times current world electricity consumption and wind is well suited to electricity generation.

why would they not release the info? I can't see why it would pose a risk to anyone or anything like that...