Those ‘Green’ Wind Farms May Actually Be Causing Local Warming
- Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:11pm by
Liz Klimas
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(Photo: University of Albany-SUNY)
A new study has found that in addition to unintended consequences like killing some flying wildlife, wind farming may also be influencing the environment in other ways. For the first time, research has shown that this renewable form of energy can have a localized warming effect.
The University at Albany-State University of New York and the University of Illinois analyzed data from NASA satellite-derived land surface temperatures of regions around large wind farms in Texas over a nine year period. What researchers found was the wind farms contributed to a 0.72 °C rise in local nighttime temperature over this time. It’s not that the wind farms are actually producing more heat per se, but that they’re pulling warmer air down.
“This warming effect is most likely caused by the turbulence in turbine wakes acting like fans to pull down warmer near surface air from higher altitudes at night,” Professor Somnath Baidya Roy at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a co-author of the study, said in a statement.
It is important to note this is not linked to “global” warming. The Wall Street Journal explains this is the first time wind turbines have been shown to affect to local temperatures over such a timeframe and notes researchers think there is more investigation needed:
“We don’t know whether there is a change in weather due to the temperature change,” said atmospheric scientist Liming Zhou at the University at Albany, who led the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation. “The temperature change is small.”
As wind farms become popular and much more widespread, however, they “might have noticeable impacts on local-to-regional weather and climate,” Mr. Zhou said. But more research is needed, he said.
Discovery News (via Fox News) has more on an idea that could help curb this effect:
One solution could be to change the shape of the turbine blades, according to John Dabiri, director of the Center for Bioinspired Wind Energy at the California Institute of Technology who is an expert on wind power design.
“Smaller turbines can avoid this problem,” Dabiri said. “However, this presents a tradeoff, because wind speed decreases as you move closer to the ground; so the smaller turbines would experience lower incoming wind speeds on average.”
That means a smaller turbine makes less power.
Prof. Chris Thorncroft, a coauthor of this study and chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at Albany said the researchers will be expanding to include other wind farms and building models to better understand how wind turbines and the “atmosphere boundary layer near the surface” interact.
Roy said in a statement he believes wind power is a good energy solution but notes understanding its impacts is “critical for developing efficient adaptation and management strategies to ensure the long-term sustainability” of the technology.
But the latest news on wind turbines isn’t all as controversial. A French engineering firm recently announced an advancement in wind turbine technology that is leading it to develop a method of obtaining moisture from humid air to derive drinking water. The Daily Mail reports Eole Water has deployed a prototype of this technology in Abu Dhabi that is producing 62 liters of water a day — from thin air. Here’s more on how it works:
The turbine works in the same way as the turbines currently seen dotting horizons around the world — and the electricity produced also helps power the water manufacturing process.
Air gets sucked into the nose of the turbine and is directed to a cooling compressor. The humidity is then extracted from the air and condensed and collected.
The water then travels down stainless steel pipes under the forces of gravity into a storage tank, where — with some filtering and purification — it is then ready to drink, wash, or cultivate with.
Eole added technology to the wind turbine to help it harvest moisture as well as energy. (Image via Daily Mail)
The developers believe this technology could be used to obtain clean water in third world countries without the proper infrastructure to do so or in areas where it is geographically difficult to get water.
Check out this promotional video on the tech for more info:
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Comments (57)
CATPBJ
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 5:18pmThe writer of this article – Liz Klimas, is a shill for Beck and Limbaugh and the Koch brothers. She does not know science nor do most of her readers.
The researchers, led by Liming Zhou, said it is “[v]ery likely“ that ”wind turbines do not create a net warming of the air and instead only re-distribute the air’s heat near the surface, which is fundamentally different from the large-scale warming effect caused by increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.” The turbines pull down warm air, increasing land surface temperatures, which already have “a larger day-night variation” than the surface air temperatures featured in daily weather reports.
Report Post »aChameleon
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 5:46pmKook
Report Post »yougottabekidding
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 7:19pmDo you think we should outlaw volcanos?
Report Post »Southerner01
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 9:59pmDid you read the article, or just the title? The author clearly states what you have said, in much more detail and more eloquently. Read first, speak second. Doing it the other way just makes you look foolish.
Report Post »ghostsouls
Posted on May 1, 2012 at 2:10amYeah I guess we should all pack our bags and buy an $8 million dollar home on the beach like Al Gore did…uggh wait…wasn’t the ocean levels suppose to rise and erode all our beaches away and any house on them be gone into the sea……………Well maybe Al Gore can go buy some carbon credits….oh wait…he owns the carbon credit company, he would be paying himself………….. Maybe Al Gore can find some reputable people to give data on global warming……arrrgghhh wait they have all been ousted as frauds who manipulated data…. go troll elsewhere…
Report Post »ronin_6
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 4:51pmWhat kind of stupidity is this?
Report Post »“For the first time, research has shown that this renewable form of energy can have a localized warming effect.”
Anybody who has driven through orchard country knows that since smudge pots were made illegal orchardmen have used wind turbines to keep their fruit from freezing. Its known and proven technology.
pap pap
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 4:24pmQuinn’s Law Number 1 – Liberalism always creates the exact opposite of it’s stated intent.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 4:37pmLet’s not forget, windmils have all the birds are disoriented!
Report Post »mcgrawactor1
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 8:06pmYes, yes, yes!! My thoughts exactly. Jim Quinn is so right on this. I just LAUGHED when I read the headline. Didn’t even need to read the article, though I did.
Everything the libs try to engineer to affect the outcome they foresee, backfires on them! And US!! Yet they will go kicking and screaming as they are dragged away from their lies, even as their “science” is proven a false and their solution are anathema. I am not anti-science; my brother, cousins and uncle are all scientist whom I hold in high esteem. They are not junk scientists though, and junk science, manipulated by poilitcs, gives all scientific pursuits a bad name.
Report Post »aChameleon
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:45pmOh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive ~ Sir Walter Scott
Report Post »cknapp
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:22pmEnergy is neither created nor destroyed, merely changed. Taking energy out of the environment (wind) and expecting no impact is of course idiotic..you know..the whole entropy vs enthalpy thing…
Thank God for my Constantine Michigan High School education (Class of ‘79). Thank you Doc Claridge (HS Science x4 years), Mrs. Maystead (1st Grade and formidable grammar/reading mentor, Mrs. Myers (4th grade math, multiplication maven), Mr. LeFevre 8th grade science teacher and Cross Country Runner impetus..run for fun, ha ha ha), and Coach Chuck Colley (algebra and wrestling).
Report Post »MCDAVE
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:46pmI too am class of 79 and knew this too…the class of 2012 only knows the liberal lies
Report Post »JRook
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:48pm“0.72 °C rise in local nighttime temperature over this time” Given the average difference between daytime and nighttime temperature ranges from 20-30 degrees F, I’d say the impact is of virtually no significance. And of course one would need to consider the reduction in warming caused by carbon based power plants which would be replaced should we actually become smart enough to utilize alternative energy.
Report Post »GrumpyCat
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:55pmNot only is energy not created or destroyed, but to transfer from one place to another you have to have something to work against. A heat engine works hot against cold. Windmills use the earth to push against to hold the turbine in the wind. This torque on the earth is ALTERING THE EARTH’s ROTATION! These idiots are converting the inertia of the earth’s rotation into their so-called renewable energy.
:-)
Report Post »yougottabekidding
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 5:15pmJRook
I’m sure your right, PLUS you don’t have to worry about all those pesky birds and bats!
Report Post »Oh, bats eat mosquitos, don’t worry about that, they have west nile under control and if not we don’t have to worry about malaria. We can start using more insecticides.
Do we have to worry about endangered species? No thats only if libs want to stop something!
Your right we’re good!
djmaine
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:16pmBoy, they are just tying themselves up in knots. This is so funny to observe
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:14pmThe irony is too rich,the nut job environmentalists causing a warming effect with their windmills.The ‘green’ agenda brought to you by communists,it’s a fact, they used the radical environmental movement to destroy our economy,it’s been going on for many years.
Report Post »justangry
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:23pmDon’t forget all the endangered birds getting wasted… But don’t you also find it amusing that those who are so vehemently against global warming theories would present one of their own to bash the other side? If they were consistent, they’d say this is BS too.
Report Post »MCDAVE
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 4:00pmOnly 8% of our politicians have ever owned or ran a business in the private sector …Yet these are the people who make decisions for us…what the h*ll do they know about free enterprise..you can not force any economic change on an economy until it makes good economic sense to change..fire them all and elect some one term businessmen to be our representatives..
Report Post »RightUnite
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:08pmUuuggghhh! Those idiots on the left just can’t catch a break! Hehehehe!
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:21pmThey are Dreamers… some Academics; some Illiterate… but all who fail to contemplate Consequences… and who reject Responsiblity!
Report Post »myway
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:04pmPerfect end to a good joke!
Report Post »MCDAVE
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 4:06pmThese windmills along with the closed solar panel factories will stand as monuments to the stupidity of the Obama administration
Report Post »SREGN
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:03pmThese environmentalists are killing us all.
Report Post »Czynik
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:02pmDrawing energy from the wind with a wind driven turbine to convert to electricity is bound to have some effect on the system. You can’t divert energy from any balanced system like the weather without creating some kind of effect. Apparently it is having a greater effect than the eco-nazis want to admit, even with the relatively few wind turbines we have at this time.
Report Post »CheckeredFlag
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:01pmWhat?! You mean slowing down the wind might affect climate? Who’d a thunk it?
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:59pmSo let the lawsuits for artificail increase of A/C usage to begin!!
Report Post »aChameleon
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:59pmEverything obama touches turns to crap. It’s incredible. It’s almost like he is purposely trying to ruin the country.
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:05pmthe total opposite of the “midas touch” huh?
Report Post »1TrueOne55
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:09pmHe is for his financial contributor George Soros, who in the 90′s declared on CNN, that the US economy is in his way of creating a New World Order based on his Open Society theory. Soros wants the US economy dead because we are the world’s reserve currency and currently all international transactions are done in US Dollars. So he had Obama installed as president by creating a financial run on the markets in Sept of 2008 during the election season. Why after 5 years have we not found out the exact reason for what started that crisis.
Report Post »Southerner01
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 10:02pmAlmost?
Report Post »Amica
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:57pmHas any thought been put into the possible consequences of removing the humidity from the air? While I’m all for it (I prefer a dry climate any day!) what will drying the air do to local plants & wildlife? I see the next climate catastrophe on the horizon!
Report Post »macruadhi
Posted on May 1, 2012 at 12:31amIt will be used on people, clothes, what not, and it will evaporate probably causing no change at all.
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:56pmyou cannot make this stuff up. seriously these environuts are crazy.
Report Post »AmazingGrace8
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:54pmWell….that makes sense to me! Wind farms are melting the “polar-caps” and are killing the polar bears!
Report Post »Oh you EPA people….you little “stinkers” You knew this all along and thought the “stupid-little-people” would never figure this one out. Your secret weapon….global warming….”man-caused-wind-farms”
Mr Sanders
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:51pmAgain, global warming/ climate change hits the fan…. and the ground. Same thing happens when you’re trying to save your grape or orange crop…. fans. Hmm…. who woulda thunk it?!
Well, if the EPA or the Environmental Climate Change people of the UN believe in their religion, then I would think they would want these infernal machines removed PRONTO!? That won’t happen though because its anything BUT oil based products.
Another proof that GREEN = RED.
Millions & millions down the rat hole again. The GREENies rush to put these tech‘s in place and don’t wait for real data… and the data keeps stacking up against their theories. All that aluminum, wasted. You want to see something really attractive – take a look at the Columbia Gorge – wow! Now there’s a site to behold!!
I wonder if someone will come out on a study about solar arrays and how they give the planet a temperature?
GREENies just keep selling it…. even if we don’t want to buy it?!! Earth Day( B-Day of Vlad Lenin) just got a little darker, I guess.
Report Post »1TrueOne55
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 3:02pmThere’s also the area around Goldendale with all the turbines going up there, the observatory that helped Einstein with his theory of relativity. And then after they are built they have to turn them off in the Northwest since they over burden the power grid.
Report Post »NHwinter
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:40pmOil and gas are natural sustances. Wind turbines are not. Technology has improved greatly in extracting oil and gas out of the earth. The environmentalist should actually be in favor of oil and gas over wind turbines, but stupid is as stupid does. Raise the temp. and kill eagles and birds. Nice going Obama and envionmentalist.
Report Post »Lord_Frostwind
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:53pmThey aren’t stupid, they’re indoctrinated fanatics. Environmentalism stopped being about conservation like it once was, and is now ruled by the likes of Paul Watson who have turned it into a Neo-Druidic (Tree worshiper) cult.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:39pmThese deceivers want to instill fear in people and appear to be the one who soothes the fears. They are liars and puppets of Satan and all that is evil. They want to be “master of the universe.” They are master of nothing and good at even less. They are everything God warns everyone against.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:37pmMan’s futile attempt at changing the weather patterns. Silly people. God controls our messes and our weather. Like he did not know how people do. He made people. He made the weather and the earth. Those socialists and left leaners ware wanting you to put your trust in them. They are liars, deceivers and power hungry people who are not happy unless people are wallowing in sin, filth and depravity. They want your money and your loyalty to people who literally take everything you have and then want you to swear your alegience to a bunch of sodomites, liars, crooks and people who only want the soul of your life. Tell them to go back to the hell they came from.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:29pmOf Course… stirring air Atoms causes Heat… just as Fanning one’s self generates Heat not Cool!
Report Post »1TrueOne55
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:54pmSince these Wind Turbines were in Texas will the soon study the effects of the turbines on the number of tornadoes they spawn… ROFL Since they can lie about “Global Climate Change” it would just be a natural that Wind Turbines in Texas would be the cause of the increase of deadly tornadoes.
Just saying?
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:26pmSince Barry O’Idiot is once again praising wind farms, that makes him not only an eater of dog, but also a bird killer…
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:39pm..and a global warming advocate…who knew!!
Report Post »HKS
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:21pmWell, knock me over with a feather, you mean there actually worse than the ugliest things I’ve ever seen?
Report Post »A face only a liberal could love.
Baddoggy
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 2:16pmI live in West Texas surrounded by these stupid things. We are in the middle of the worst drought ever, You F’ing bird killing global heating idiot ENVIROMENTALIST suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I se a class action lawsuit coming on…All of west texas should participate and take down these monstrosities.
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