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Wind farms warm soil at night by 0.72, so what?
photo by fieldsbh (Flickr CC)
I read the news today, oh boy.
Wind farms are causing global warming? No, but maybe a bit of local warming.
A new study of wind turbines in Texas shows that rotating blades force warm air downwards at night, causing ground temperatures to rise by up to 0.72C (1.3F).
And so the headlines read that wind farms warm the night, or as Reuters states ‘Wind Farms Might Have Warming Effect’. But they also cool ground temperatures during the day according to previous research. Isn’t this piece of information equally significant? The Guardian doesn’t include it in their article, while Discovery only mentions it in a confusing manner. This latest study apparently showed that daytime temperatures were not affected by the turbines.
So much for the pro-renewable energy, eco-fascist climate change fear-mongering media. What a disappointment.
Still, this news might not be insignificant.
The result looks pretty solid to me. The same strategy is commonly used by fruit growers, who fly helicopters over the orchards rather than erect windmills, to combat early morning frosts.
–Steven Sherwood, climate change research centre, University of New South Wales, Australia (via the Guardian)
I dunno… perhaps wind turbines could be erected on orchards. Win-win?
The Texas study’s author, Liming Zhou of the University of Albany in New York, does believe that wind farms could possibly have “noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate” (Reuters).
Local warming to fight global warming? As usual, more research is needed, but I’m willing to bet a wind turbine will never cause a drought, flood, or hurricane.
Tags: temperatures, Texas, warming, wind farm, wind turbines
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I agree on Mr. Colin, after reading the article I could not help not to smirk and roll my eyes… Leave the wind turbines alone! Ridiculously st_pid to brought up something so minor, and to think the said land warming happens at night but cools down during the day it means the side effect fixes itself…We have gazillion to be panicked over the effects of coal electricity.
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