Companies today, facing an environment of great uncertainty, can no longer cling to traditional industry assumptions. Instead, the perspective of defying conventional wisdom goes hand-in-hand with the process of Blue Ocean Strategy, which is a systematic approach to turning unconventional ideas into winning strategies. This week, to provide some inspiration, we feature an example of Defying Conventional Wisdom from the energy sector.
Why build ground-based windmills when enegery-producing winds are more abundant higher up in the atmosphere? Contrary to the conventional wisdom that windmills must be near-to-earth, new wind machines placed thousands of feet above large cities have the potential to meet global electricity demand a hundred times over.
More on this uplifting thinking from Wired:
The first rigorous, worldwide study of high-altitude wind power estimates that there is enough wind energy at altitudes of about 1,600 to 40,000 feet to meet global electricity demand a hundred times over.
The very best ground-based wind sites have a wind-power density of less than 1 kilowatt per square meter of area swept. Up near the jet stream above New York, the wind power density can reach 16 kilowatts per square meter. The air up there is a vast potential reservoir of energy, if its intermittency can be overcome.
Even better, the best high-altitude wind-power resources match up with highly populated areas including North America’s Eastern Seaboard and China’s coastline.
[Image via Future Energy.]
