Walls of wind turbines could protect cities against hurricanes, a new study suggests

Details -- According to a presentation held at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), in San Francisco, fields of wind turbines could be used to sap the energy of massive tropical storms and hurricanes before they reach coastlines, potentially saving billions in damages and loss of lives.

Experts at Stanford University, led by civil and environmental engineer professor Mark. Z. Jacobson, conducted a series of computer simulations showing that an array of around 70,000 wind turbines installed in the pathway of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy would have made the storms less deadly. In the case of Katrina, wind speeds may have been reduced by as much as 50 percent at landfall, while the storm surge may have been reduced by 72 percent. New Orleans and the Louisiana Gulf Coast would have suffered significantly less, were this system set in place in 2005.

Together, 70,000 turbines installed 100 kilometers (60 miles) offshore, would produce as much as 300 gigawatts of electricity. Each turbine would have to be able to withstand wind speeds of up to 50 meters (165 feet) per second in order to achieve this reduction, Earthtechling reports.