[kabar]

What percentage of our national power usage is 3,000 MEGAWATTS? I know that California uses up to 45,000 megawatts daily.

[JasonC]

About 2/3rds of 1%, assuming it operates 24-7-365. US electricity production is around 4 trillion kilowatt hours per year, which would take 456,500 megawatts of capacity running flat out. The actual base is undoubtedly higher because not all plant can run at all times, so perhaps this is more like half of 1%.

The installed wind power capacity is apparently more like 9,000 megawatts (or 2% of what is needed), while 3,000 is the amount being added each year.

Worldwide figures, incidentally, would be about 4.5 times higher than for the US alone, in terms of energy needs.