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(Harvard Gazette) – Unfortunately, there is no free meal for energy production.
As the world begins its large-scale transition to low-carbon energy sources, it is essential that the advantages and disadvantages of each type be well understood and that the environmental impacts of renewable energies, however small, be they in relation to coal and gas, are considered.
In two articles published today in the Environmental Research Letters and Joule journals, researchers at Harvard University have discovered that the transition to wind or solar power in the United States would require five to twenty times more land than expected, and the farms were built, would warm the average surface temperatures on the American continent by 0.24 degrees Celsius.
"The wind beats coal, regardless of the environmental action taken, but that does not mean its impacts are negligible," said David Keith, professor of applied physics at the Gordon McKay Chair of SEAS at Harvard School of Medicine. Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). principal author of articles. "We need to move quickly away from fossil fuels to stop carbon emissions. In doing so, we must choose between different low-carbon technologies, all of which have social and environmental impacts. "
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