A wind “power” doubleshot today.On the bright side, there aren’t that many wind farms
(Reuters) Large wind farms might have a warming effect on the local climate, research in the United States showed on Sunday, casting a shadow over the long-term sustainability of wind power.
Researchers at the State University of New York at Albany analysed the satellite data of areas around large wind farms in Texas, where four of the world’s largest farms are located, over the period 2003 to 2011.
The results, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, showed a warming trend of up to 0.72 degrees Celsius per decade in areas over the farms, compared with nearby regions without the farms.
This is happening particularly at night, where the warmer air is drawn down when it should be cooling, much like happens when you put your ceiling fan on reverse.
I hate you.
I have the same story going up tomorrow. ;)
In the article I read, there may be some solutions to this problem:
1) smaller turbines.
2) energy harvesters that do not rely on blade technology.
3) “tethered” turbines that operate at high altitudes where the winds are more consistent.
That being said, this is another case of doing something (wind turbines) is not the same as doing the right thing.
Heh!!!!!!
Well, hey, the solution is to shut the turbines down at night and use the solar receptors….oh.
I’ve read reports that state that all the wind turbines could play hell with the localized weather patterns in other ways, increasing the wind speeds in front as they turn, which could cause multiple problems,including the formation of more tornadoes in storms that wouldn’t usually spawn them. The law of unintended consequences.
Just kidding on the “hate.” You didn’t have this up when I wrote my post and I thought “I might beat Teach on an environmental post!” Alas, that was not to be. :D
The report I read said the effect will also play havoc with agriculture and plants in the area. Also, if there are homes or businesses in the area, they will require mote cooling.
I agree it is the law of unintended consequences, but it also goes to show that often times the solutions are just as bad, if not worse, than the problems the “solution” was supposed to solve.
This is just another case of rushing to do something without understanding the effects. Didn’t people ever read “The Butterfly Effect?”
Sheez.
sooo wind turbines may LOCALLY raise the temp by .07C per year. please compare that with say nukes, or coal. Also please compare the SIZE of that area affected with say the land area of the USA. Teach, do you really think that any of the temp rise s significant?
john, what are nukes doing? And, yes, we understand that it is localized. Most percieved warming is localized, as so many of the temperature readings come from monitoring stations in poorly sited areas, as well as urban areas. Urban areas tend to have much higher temp readings than out in the countryside. And local often can affect global, though, if you Warmists really believed the crap you push, you would all change your lives, instead of telling everyone else they have to change theirs. Lead by example.