How many homes can be powered with 1 megawatt of wind energy?

Answer 1

That's impossible to say, beause a megawatt is a measure of power (energy per time). You need to know how much energy it will provide (power times time, or generally kilawatt or megawatt-hour) to know how many homes that will power.

Answer 2

First, when calculating the power from a windmill, expect to have about 20% of total capacity (the wind blows at useable speeds about 20% of the time). So to make 1 MW 100% of the time you would need a 5 MW system.

Then it depends on the house: new, old, well insulated, energy star appliances, no wasteful habits, etc. The average US home uses about 9MW-hrs per year, so ...

1MW X 20% X 365 X 24 = 1752 MW-hrs ... so about 200 homes. But it isnt dependable so you will still have to be on the grid or have battery storage (a LOT of battery storage).

Answer 3

The amount power a wind turbine is capable of putting out depends on the size (power rating) of of the machine as is the case with any other generator. The type of the machine installed on the turbine will also determine if the turbine can provide stand alone power. These power system questions usually depend a lot on design specs. However there are wind turbines that can definitely power many homes. As you rightfully mentioned wind is not constant, and hence wind power may not be very reliable. However the technology is advancing which will improve reliability. It makes a lot of sense to install wind farms.

Answer 4

About a thousand at average power usage although power usage for homes can spike during some times.

But only when the wind is blowing.

If you have the ability to store large amounts of power you might be able to power a couple of hundred homes all the time but we lack power storage technology for the kind of scale you'd need for wind to actually be a solution to global warming (right now it's just a distraction that prevents us from actually solving the problem).

Answer 5

My average electricity consumption is 1000 kWh in a month. This means that my average power demand is 1.38 kW or .00138MW. Thus, 1MW of power will supply 720 houses. Of course, power demand is not uniform so you will need pack-up for peak loads.