In: Mechanical Engineering
Compare the yearly greenhouse gas emissions from 1 GWe (gigawatt-electric) power stations powered by natural gas and wind turbines. The energy content of natural gas is 55 MJ/kg, and the electrical converting efficiency is 40%. Wind turbines do not emit CO2 as they harness the wind but emissions do occur during the manufacturing of the turbine. For USA, assume the CO2 emission per GDP is approximately 500 Tonnes / $ 1 million of GDP. For wind turbines, it costs $2 million for a 1 MWe plant, which has an efficiency of 0.3, and the yearly maintenance is approximately 2% of the initial cost. Assume the average lifetime of a wind turbine is 20 years.