Turbine trouble over researchers' bad wind

Turbine trouble over researchers' bad wind

www.slashgear.com

A new study has found that long term use of wind farms can potentially lead to local weather and climate change. Satellite data that was taken over a large wind farm area in Texas over the course of a decade found that the temperature increased by 0.72C (1.37F) as more turbines were built.

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Well how about that? Wind farms actually raise the temperature in the area... so have we finally learned that we can't harvest something without effecting something else? Hydropower, Windpower, Fossil Fuels.... Even Nuclear....

All of these energy sources cause effects... when will we start looking at the effects of the solutions we create ahead of time? Where was the computer models to detect this?

www.slashgear.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The data, however, isn’t conclusive, and scientists need to perform more research before they can determine the full effects of the turbines on the environment.

“Overall, the warming effect reported in this study is local and is small compared to the strong background year-to-year land surface temperature changes,” he added.

“This makes sense, since at night the ground becomes much cooler than the air just a few hundred meters above the surface, and the wind farms generate gentle turbulence near the ground that causes these to mix together, thus the ground doesn't get quite as cool. This same strategy is commonly used by fruit growers (who fly helicopters over the orchards rather than windmills) to combat early morning frosts.”

Raising the local temperature very slightly at night wouldn't do much harm, right?

reply to post by RealSpoke


First off... like Einstein said... no experiment can probe me right, but it only takes one to prove me wrong.

So data is NEVER conclusive....

One degree? Not much harm?

Heh....

Its just a load of crapola.

And the tiny amount it might change, compared to the more hefty amount of damage fossil fuels cause.

Originally posted by Unity_99
And the tiny amount it might change, compared to the more hefty amount of damage fossil fuels cause.

Fossil fuels have only changed the environment by tiny amounts over an extended period. Do we really need to make the same mistake twice?

As the OP has already mentioned, it is physically impossible to take from a system without causing an affect.

We need to address the root of our problem....consumption.

I do not think it is IMPOSSIBLE to use a resource without causing an unwelcome effect. I do however think that it is very difficult, and would require great sacrifice. Solar panels, for instance, once built, do not cause warming or cooling in and of themselves. They are however, VERY expensive considering how easy they are to construct, and considering that all solar panels are built to be less efficient than they could be, to prevent the inventors from being castrated and then shot by big oil executives.

This study only confirms what is already known about the transmutation and transference of energy. Wind energy is not only responsible for local climate changes (temperature), but also bird kills, noise pollution, and wind pattern changes.

We as the human race (directed more at the "western" world) need to realize that we need to be more responsible about our energy usage, as there is no such thing as "free" energy.

I think it is high time we started investigating Thorium as an energy source. The main reason Thorium has been ignored for so long is that it does not create the vast stocks needed to create and maintain nuclear weapons stocks, so was not seen as beneficial to nuclear (weapons) nations.

reply to post by TrueBrit


SO large scale solar farms don't reflect a whole lot of heat back outward to space?

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Well solar farms are somewhat different to simply a large area covered in PV panels. Many of the most well publicised farms involved focusing hundreds of mirrors toward a central tower, the rays go into the tower, to heat water, which turns turbines (yada yada). I would imagine that those farms do reflect an unhealthy amount of heat.

But solar panels not so much, and with the metamaterial advent on the horizon, it is only a matter of time before a coating is developed that nullifies even that miniscule reflection. Hell, they have a materail made up of carbon now, that can absorb 99% of visible light. I am fairly confident that the current concerns about renewables will fall by the wayside, as collection and distribution techniques get the kinks ironed out of them over time.

This is BS!!! They worry about 2 deg. C rise OVER 100 YEARS, and then they raise the temperature nearly 1 degree in a decade and it is OK????

WAKE UP PEOPLE YOU ARE BEING LIED TO ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE.

Why is warming due to CO2 (not proven) bad, but warming due to ill-conceived projects such as this, perfectly OK?

Man made climate change - yeah - and the cause is not CO2!!

OOOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII LLLLLLLLLLLL.