Wind Farms Linked to Local Climate Change

Wind Farms Linked to Local Climate Change

Wind power, one the oldest and most established forms of alternative energy, might not be as green as we thought. A new study in the US has linked wind farms to local temperature rises of over 0.7°C—enough to change local weather and climate.

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Uh oh...so much for wind energy.

Well, that's interesting..... by-product of creating electricity with coils is heat, but enough to change the local climate?

Insignificant next to the heat generated by homes and cars. In fact, I'm wondering if a cow standing in a field generates more body heat than the windmill.

Interestingly, most of the heating occurs at night: it's speculated that, while the earth usually cools after the sun sets in turn bringing down the air temperature, the turbulence that the turbines produce keeps the ground around them warm for longer.

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Basically, the speculation is that they prevent the natural night-time cooling effect in the area.

ylexot said:

Basically, the speculation is that they prevent the natural night-time cooling effect in the area.

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I would think too that the blades act as barriers to the wind..

You have (for example) a 20 MPH wind hitting your wind turbine that forces the blades to turn.. all of that wind energy is used to turn the blades.. the energy is lost coming through the blade, or at the very least very disturbed.

A sizable wind farm could disrupt wind patterns, and wind speeds significantly especially if they are at the mouth of a valley (where winds would be more prevelant) significanty impacting the weather in the windward valley.