Posted on 09/10/2018 7:40:03 AM PDT by ETL
Energy generation by wind and solar farms could reduce carbon emissions and thus mitigate anthropogenic climate change.
A new climate-modeling study, published in the journal Science, finds that large-scale installations of wind and solar farms in the Sahara Desert and the neighboring Sahel region — areas particularly desirable for such farms because of their vastness and lack of inhabitants — would increase local temperature, precipitation and vegetation. ..."
“Our study is among the first to model the climate effects of wind and solar installations while taking into account how vegetation responds to changes in heat and precipitation,” Dr. Li said.
“Previous modeling studies have shown that large-scale wind and solar farms can produce significant climate change at continental scales. But the lack of vegetation feedbacks could make the modeled climate impacts very different from their actual behavior.”
The wind and solar farms simulated in the study would cover more than 9 million km2 and generate, on average, about 3 terawatts and 79 terawatts of electrical power, respectively.
“In 2017, the global energy demand was only 18 terawatts, so this is obviously much more energy than is currently needed worldwide,” Dr. Li said.
The model revealed that wind farms caused regional warming of near-surface air temperature, with greater changes in minimum temperatures than maximum temperatures.
“The greater nighttime warming takes place because wind turbines can enhance the vertical mixing and bring down warmer air from above,” the researchers said.
“Precipitation also increased as much as 0.25 mm per day on average in regions with wind farm installation.”
“This was a doubling of precipitation over that seen in the control experiments. In the Sahel, average rainfall increased 1.12 mm per day where wind farms were present,” Dr. Li said.
“This increase in precipitation, in turn, leads to an increase in vegetation cover, creating a positive feedback loop.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
Don’t fool with mother nature.
Rain?
At some point the science will overwhelm their fantasies, and this will all come crashing down. We’ll be left with trillions of dollars in equipment that just can’t compete with nuclear and petrochemical power generation.
Statistically insignificant.
I believe it used to be quite forested.
I’m SO confused !! In the US, we’re told solar and wind don’t have an impact on the environment, but in Africa they do?
Oh No!!!
If you increase the rainfall in the Sahara and turn it into a forest that would exterminate most of the desert animals that live there. We cant’have that. Need to tell the environmentalists that they want to change the Sahara from a desert to a forest.
Oh by the way that’s the way it was before it became a desert.
Let me know when you've nailed that down - like if it's going to rain here next week...
At whose expense? Evaporation is a constant rate around the world. Weather patterns are also (fairly) consistent. If we start messing with where it rains and how much it rains, we mess up the water cycle. Mess with the water cycle enough, and we get famine.
Have these people thought of anything like that at all?
*
I believe there were once NO giant redwoods. Maybe no minature ones either.
Nope. What they really need is large-scale water desalinization using nuclear power to turn the deserts into arable land. Just all that vegetation from turning all that desert into farmland would drastically alter the weather.
Oh unicorn farts again....what could go wrong?
Some what off topic. Sand in a desert wind storm will do damage to the solar glass and cause the efficiency of the solar panels to decrease. Sort of like sand pits on a car windshield. Of course the experts may say that the solar glass is always perfectly perfect like Superman from Krypton, yet the glass does get dirty and the cleaning does not restore it to brand new.
“would increase local temperature...”
Its a nice thought but total BS.
The best thing for the Sahara Desert would be for MORE CO2.
Plant life needs carbon and sunlight to turn the carbon into food. Plants use water to move products around like we use blood. When there is not enough CO2 plants will extract carbon from by again using sun power to burn the oxygen in the water and make carbon for food. During the last ice age the Carbon Dioxide level in our atmosphere dipped below 300 parts per million. That is a dangerous level and could have extinguished all life on the planet had it gone much lower. Some scientists believe that if the level drops below 250ppm most plant life will die. Without plant life we all die.
In the 1970s we were told by scientists that the Sahara Desert was growing but now suddenly it is retreating. The cause is the nearly 400PPM of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, it is negating the lack of water in the Desert and allowing plants to thrive where they could not before.
It is true that if you could bring water to the Desert you can make it green but it is much easier to increase Carbon Dioxide. Florists green houses pump in Carbon Dioxide to increase growth. The added benefit of added CO2 is added Oxygen. The added plants in our ecosystem will produce oxygen that was not being produced but burned before.
Carbon is good, the staff of life.
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