Dang wind farm polluters are causing the world to hot up!!!!
Oh my! This’ll make some people’s heads explode! A new study just out shows that wind farms are causing warming in the areas deployed!
The wind industry in the United States has experienced a remarkably rapid expansion of capacity in recent years and this fast growth is expected to continue in the future1, 2, 3. While converting wind’s kinetic energy into electricity, wind turbines modify surface–atmosphere exchanges and the transfer of energy, momentum, mass and moisture within the atmosphere4, 5, 6. These changes, if spatially large enough, may have noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate. Here we present observational evidence for such impacts based on analyses of satellite data for the period of 2003–2011 over a region in west-central Texas, where four of the world’s largest wind farms are located7. Our results show a significant warming trend of up to 0.72 °C per decade, particularly at night-time, over wind farms relative to nearby non-wind-farm regions. We attribute this warming primarily to wind farms as its spatial pattern and magnitude couples very well with the geographic distribution of wind turbines.
From another source……
Zhou and colleagues say a large enough wind farm could even effect local and regional weather and climate. They say the work draws attention to an important scientific issue that requires further investigation. Climate scientist Professor Nigel Tapper, or Melboure’s Monash University, isn’t surprised by the results.
“No matter what we do, any modification of the landscape will have an impact on air temperatures,” says Tapper. “The critical thing is that it’s a local effect and one we need to understand.” “If you were to use solar panels rather than turbines you would still have an effect.” “The question is whether that local effect is offsetting the generation of power from coal fired power stations. Because fundamentally the impact of carbon dioxide emissions, is having a global effect rather than just a local one,” says Tapper.
So says, a true believer!
“I do believe in global warming and I believe we have to look at alternative energy. We need a portfolio of energy sources and wind farms will be one of them.”
“It would be nice to do a similar study here, we would probably get a similar pattern,” says Tapper.
A previous study found a similar effect but was based on data from only two weather stations over just six weeks.
You can go here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas to get a feel for the expanse of land we’re talking about. I don’t have a total acreage number yet, but I’ll dig. Just one wind farm with a total of 421 turbines covers 47,000 acres (190 km²) of land in Taylor and Nolan Counties. I’ll work on estimating it.
0.72 deg C/decade. Or 7 deg C/century. Uhmm, that’s a lot worse than what we’re seeing with CO2.
Read here for the abstract. here and here.
suyts space 
Wind power is such a wonderful thing to have in the neighborhood.
I read about those wind farms and think about the environmental degradation the construction of those monsters has done on a global scale.
The regional warming they may cause is only a minor environmental issue with those things.
lol, right, but this will be fun to have people trip over themselves its about 0.25 acres/1000KW turbine…..
Wind generators can’t contribute to global warming as is implied by the study (unless one burns up – which happens from time to time). They may decrease air circulation, which in turn decreases the wind’s transport of heat away from the immediate area, resulting in higher temperatures measured around the generators. However the net heat added to the atmosphere is zilch. That’s the problem with these studies – every thing causes global warming even when there exists no mechanism.
Lol, Hank, you’re killing the fun we could have with the alarmists! You are right of course, it doesn’t add any heat, it just doesn’t move it away as fast.
On a semi-more serious note, this maybe could have implications if we were to adopt these whirly-gigs on a large scale. Currently, wind produces less than 3% of our electricity. If we somehow managed to increase it by tenfold, then area covered may be significant enough to alter something, if nothing else some land thermometers.
Having read the executive summary, I note a couple of things.
1. It is not really causing any warming. it is merely moving warm air around. So while the air at the ground is warmer, aloft it is cooler.
2. It may cause some issues with plants and animals since most exist on the ground and do not make it up into the air (although birds have long taken advantage of thermal currents). Or more accurately, they benefit from the warm air sent to the ground (since it is used to help prevent freezing).
3. The fact that no net energy is added or subtracted is the key. It is a lesson for the alarmist. But one that will fall on deaf ears.
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How in this world can wind farms create a warming trend?…………..
I think Hank has it right, it’s just not moving the heat out like it otherwise would. But, this could be a blast. The location is delicious as well.
It’s not accumulating heat either…and that’s what they are saying “trend”….
It’s a one time event, and constant after that…..it does not gradually get warmer and warmer…..a trend
“a significant warming trend of up to 0.72 °C per decade”
They are saying that the longer the wind farm sits there, the warmer it gets….that’s BS
found it, they are saying the trend comes from adding more windmills…..
“found that over a decade the local temperature went up by almost 1C as more turbines are built”
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