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In the fight against climate change, wind farms have been the posters of choice for environmentally friendly and low impact energy sources. However, a new study from Harvard University reveals that the creation of huge wind farms around the world could actually lead to an increase in temperature. little a little more complicated than that.
Recently, several research teams from across the United States used computer simulations to model what would happen if you covered the Sahara desert in massive solar and wind farms. The answer was increased rainfall, higher minimum temperatures and a lot of energy: 82 terawatts, almost four times global energy demand. The higher temperatures projected in the simulation were mainly due to the phenomenon of air mixing, in which the turbines shake the air closer to the ground and air at higher altitudes, resulting in a higher air temperature. dredging the air warmer up. The effect is negligible during the day, but may have a greater impact at night.
The recent Harvard study reflects these results. According to the researchers, the United States could generate enough energy to meet all their energy needs if it created a giant wind farm that spread throughout the Midwest … But the consequence could be to be an increase in the temperature of local areas and the United States as a whole. . The increase could be about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit at the local level and 0.36 degrees at the national level.
In the meantime, if the whole world converted all its energy production into wind farms, something interesting would happen … According to Ars Technica, "in this hypothetical scenario, the avoided warming in the United States in 2100 would be in fact about equivalent to the one added, local heat caused by wind turbines. "
There are some crucial differences between the warming caused by these turbines and that caused by climate change. On the one hand, climate change keep accumulate heat over the centuries and worsen over time. Second, climate change can lead to increased temperatures in the oceans, resulting in effects such as melting ice and bleaching reefs. The list is long, but the comparison between turbine heating and greenhouse gases is not a face to face, although the experience may be similar at ground level. According to the study itself:
"Wind beats fossil fuels to any reasonable extent of long-term environmental impacts per unit of energy generated … While these impacts differ from the climate impacts of [greenhouse gases] in many important ways, they should not be neglected. "
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