Wind Farms Contribute to Global Warming!

Well So much for the idea of wind power being enviromentally friendly. It seems that wind farms can raise the temperature of a local enviroment as much as 2 degrees celcius at night time. So its not only driving a hummer that will cause global warming its those clean energy sources too.

Wind farms can change the weather, according to a model of how these forests of giant turbines interact with the local atmosphere. And the idea is backed up by observations from real wind farms.......


How such a change might affect local wildlife and agriculture is not clear.

The findings are backed by real observations. Neil Kelley, a meteorologist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, has gathered data from a wind farm in California.

�Although the wind farm was more dense and the turbines smaller we still found that the turbines tended to pull down heat and momentum from above, particularly during the night-time hours,� he says.

www.newscientist.com...

I highly doubt this. Without reading your article (sorry), I think this effect occurs at night and is a local, not a global effect. So wind farms woudl not contribute to global warming. (IMO)

Unfortunately, it is a global matter because the turbines take energy out of the wind thus affecting the weather on a global scale.

Baidya Roy says it may be possible to modify the wind turbines so that their effect on the weather is not so extreme. �If engineers can reduce turbulence then the turbine would become more efficient and the environmental impact would be reduced,� he says.

But no amount of engineering will change the fact that energy is being removed from the wind. �People tend to think that renewable energy is for free, but it isn�t. There is a price to pay for all kinds of consumption, including renewable energy,� says Baidya Roy.

Sorry BJ but 2 degrees? You've got to move further north to realize how small 2 deg. actually is.

Originally posted by intrepid
Sorry BJ but 2 degrees? You've got to move further north to realize how small 2 deg. actually is.

You know you might be right. Here in Alabama 32 degrees fareinheit is cold enough to stop anyone from doing anything outside so I would have to agree with you on that point.

However 2 degrees is a big deal according to Global Warming with that begin the margin of increase of only 0.6 and 2.5 degrees in the next fifty years



yosemite.epa.gov...

I'm sorry but this kind of science borders on trash. Wind farms cause global warming. No offense BJ. This isn't your fault. Its the morons that come out with this kind of research. These people give global warming supporters a bad name. These windfarms are insignificant specs on the surface. They change nothing. Only thing they do is give headaches to birds that don't pay attention.

I hope this isnt true I love wind power generators. Wind, Solar, and Wave power could handle all our energy needs. I think that should be the future of clean energy not just using one but all of them combined. This world is full of clean renewable energy.

This study was based on "a hypothetical wind farm consisting of a 100 by 100 array of wind turbines, each 100 metres tall and set 1 kilometre apart."
That means a wind farm with 10,000 turbines and occupying a square with 100 Km in each side.

As far as could find, the biggest wind farm has 6,000 turbines and generates 1 TWh of electricity per year.

Also, I think that there are not wind farms with the turbines forming a square because then the turbines on the back would get less wind than those on the front, even if they were 1Km apart, so the wind farm on the study was of a kind that probably does exist and never will.

BlackJackal, do you have the link to the actual study? I'm kinda losing faith in newscientist.com due to the fact that they have published some questionable science recently. If it's in Nature or any other publication like that then I might give it more thought but right now my opinion on the study is that its just another attempt to discredit what is a seroius threat to Oils monopoly, in the near term.

I think we should worry about the more serious cuases of global warming, instead of focusing on something as trivial as this...

On November 8, 2004, A 3800 page "Draft Environmental Impact Statement" issued by the Army Corp of Engineers seems to disagree with the theme of this topic, "Wind Farms Contribute to Global Warming!"

The search for alternative energy sources is a necessity now, today. We do need to protect our environment from pollution and depletion of our natural resources.

Horseshoe Shoal is the proposed site of this wind farm. The many benefits include lower energy costs, more jobs, and a healthier environment.

It will have no adverse impact on fishing, or general vessel/air navigation. People onshore will not hear the operations and will see only what looks like line of sail boats on the distant horizon.

From Draft Environmental Impact Statement

Cape Wind will reduce energy costs in several ways including offsetting the burning of expensive fossil fuels, reducing New England�s dependence on natural gas, and reducing the cost of compliance with the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards (RPS) for Massachusetts electricity consumers.

See links for more information
www.capewind.org...

Despite all of the good news for the environment, new jobs, and lower energy costs, some of the wealthy and well-known inhabitants of this area are not happy.

This from the Boston Herald...

There have been many ironies attached to this project, not the least of which has been the motivations behind those who oppose it: It's the wealthy vs. everyone else. Karl Marx may be largely discredited, but some of what he observed was correct: Economic class matters. How else can one explain Democratic powerhouse Ted Kennedy allying
himself with Republican Gov. Mitt Romney [related, bio] to oppose the plan?

link to Boston Herald
news.bostonherald.com...

It seems that only good can come from this project.

The NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude of some people is worrying. Both Kennedy and Romney seem to be for other methods of good environmental policies.

And this from the Cape Cod Times

BOSTON - The Conservation Law Foundation has called on Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. Edward Kennedy to reconsider their opposition to the Cape Wind project in light of favorable findings in a draft environmental impact statement released yesterday.

link to Cape Cod Times
www.capecodonline.com...

It doesn't seem as though Washington is moving fast enough to find new means of conserving our natural resources and reducing CO2 emissions. The Cape Wind project can be a model of what can be accomplished.

this from the Boston Globe

THERE IS a "think globally, act locally" rightness to the fact that the
environmental report for the Cape Wind power project came on the same day scientists laid out the dramatic effects global warming is having on the Arctic. The report on Cape Wind's 130-turbine proposal finds few costs to marine or bird life that might outweigh the project's benefits to both the environment and the economy.

link to Boston Globe
www.boston.com...